Wild Deer Adult Wilderness Skills Program (Yr 1)
We’re so excited to announce that Wild Deer 1 is BACK in January 2023! After a couple years of Covid hiatus, we couldn’t be more thrilled to offer this opportunity for adults to get outside, connect with a like-minded community of people, and build new skills.
Wild Deer 1 is a great opportunity for educators, parents, and outdoor enthusiasts to deepen their connection to nature. Through a mix of active instruction and experiential learning, participants learn in-depth naturalist knowledge, wilderness and survival skills, and mentoring techniques. Participants gain a wealth of new knowledge, a heightened awareness of nature, and a personal drive to continue learning.

Program content highlights:
- Wildlife tracking
- Hazards in nature
- Edible and medicinal plant harvesting and preparations
- Tuning your senses and awareness to nature’s baseline
- Making containers and baskets from natural materials
- Making basic tools from forest resources
- Bird language
- Learning survival skills of the ancient and modern hunter-gatherer
- Making fire by friction (bow and hand drill) in various weather conditions
- Tarps, knots, and practical bushcraft
- Wilderness navigation
- Growing your naturalist skills around trees, birds, plants, etc.
- Introduction to basic survival, hunting, and trapping skills
- And much more!
Meet your Lead Instructor, Lee!
We could not be more excited that Lee will be running Wild Deer 1 this year! Lee is an avid naturalist and frequenter of the wilds. Some of her favourite activities include looking at beautiful birds, tracking mink and deer throughout the city and geeking out with field guides. When she’s not hanging out in the ravines running programs with kids, she can be found foraging, preserving, fermenting and making all manner of goods from plants. Growing up in the Taylor Creek watershed and traveling the northeast to learn from many mentors, she is grateful to have opportunities to share her enthusiasm and passion about the beautiful planet we inhabit. Lee has much knowledge to share, and is always keen to continue growing and learning in community.
Featuring Guest Instructor, Chris!
We’re so excited to welcome Chris back with some guest appearances at Wild Deer this year! Chris is a professional outdoor educator, wilderness guide and skills instructor and emergency management planner. He lives on a modern day permaculture homestead up in Muskoka where he and his wife Laura run Wild Muskoka Botanicals, grow organic food, medicinal herbs and practice forest gardening. He has 13+ years of experience helping people of all ages deepen their knowledge of the natural world through experiential education, wilderness guiding and wilderness & urban survival training. He is also a professional trickster so watch out or he might put a mud ball in your pocket.

The Wild Deer program has been such an incredible and transformative experience. I’ve seen myself change so much over my time here and I’m so thankful to everyone that I’ve connected with over the course of this journey.
— Reid, 2018 Wild Deer participant

Click here to learn more about our curriculum and learning outcomes.
2023 Details:
Wild Deer is a weekend-based program with 6 weekend sessions occurring monthly between January and June. Exact times may vary slightly, based on the needs and interests of the group. Participants are required to bring their own food. Pricing includes all 6 weekends and lodging during January and June weekends.
Weekend 1: Baysville (Muskoka)
Weekend 2: GTA Parks
Weekend 3: 1-1.5 hours outside of the GTA
Weekend 4: GTA Parks
Weekend 5: 1-1.5 hours outside of the GTA
Weekend 6: Camping
A payment plan is available. Bursaries are available through our Bursary Fund.
Registration
Registration for 2023 will be opening on November 2nd at 12:00pm (noon)!
Click here for registration policies.