SHTF Woodland area needed per person

[Plymtom]

not many saying to head for the beach

That's true enough but beside the seaside is not the safest place to be as regards disasters, and it can be pretty rough on anything other than a nice day too, nice thought though, you're right there did seem to be a fixation on running to the woods.

[gm_prepper]

I have no concrete plan, or to put it another way I'm a strong believer in having many plans.

I am comfortable with my own company but I live in a community that I help and teach to help themselves by showing them what I can in various areas. I have family so it won't be a solo journey but these things still need to be planned for. Same as prepparing my family so that if anything happened to me they won't be left standing without a clue.

I believe unless there's an event that seriously diminishes the population, nuclear/bio or chemical then people are gonna be tripping over them selves for a large prtion of the country. Even if only one person from every street in five, heads for the proverbial hills then we're still talking about a lot of people.

I will always leave my options open as the best laid plane n all that. Thankfully I have been prepparing myself a very long time and have learned some useful skills along the way.

Although we live by the sea (too close for comfort for me personally) it's better than were I moved from in South London. Even if/when I move (looking atm) we move inland I will still be buying a boat, even if a solid dinghy with outboard motor.

[Cocotte]

not many saying to head for the beach

That's true enough but beside the seaside is not the safest place to be as regards disasters, and it can be pretty rough on anything other than a nice day too,

I wouldn't think about living ON the beach, but being an island nation, many people are less than an hour's cycling distance from the sea and its bounty.
I think it was the Edwardian Farm series that had farmers as part time fishermen and showing how to collect a type of shrimp from the sand, being a skill I have never seen before coupled with dried seaweed for fuel, I'm sure there'd be plenty of resources that people overlook.

Just food for thought. It's knowledge in the less obvious foods that'll make a difference in my opinion, like beech sap in winter rather than hunting anything that moves. Less competition = more for me!

[Plymtom]

many people are less than an hour's cycling distance from the sea and its bounty

I'm within 15-20 minutes walking distance and could cycle to a whole lot more within an hour, but then so are the other 300,000 people hereabouts

[Sheepster]

I suppose you COULD describe my local beach as having a "bounty" but I think most who know minehead would call it something else

[2ndRateMind]

SHTF woodland area per person? I don't think it's an option. I just don't think there is enough woodland to support enough people if the SHTF. The romances of Robin Hood and his Merry Men living off Sherwood Forest are just that; romances. The truth is, as soon as any self-supporter has a bit of woodland, he cuts it down to favour more productive crops than trees. He needs to; woodland won't support him. Our current landscape is the evidence of that; we were entirely wooded, centuries ago. But while there are woodlands, now, mostly in marginally useful land, anywhere that is even slightly fertile is given over to arable or livestock. Bugging out to the woods is the obvious thing to do if the SHTF, but you may be sure that because it is obvious, that is what exactly what everyone else will do. So, the best idea I can offer is; do something different, instead. You're just not going to be able to create a sustainable lifestyle in woodlands, if everyone else is bugging out right there as well. And even if they weren't, woodlands just don't meet the requirements of a self-sufficient lifestyle, however romantic that idea might be.

Cheers, 2RM.

[Riosingh]

If the shtf, why would you would you want to be on your own, surely there is better streanth in numbers and a better chsnce of survival. And less of a chance of being targeted by gangs.
Also if the shtf, what would happen to all the food that is grown in this country. The uk was the bread basket of the roman empire, and fed a large part part of western europe. And upto today we have a massive culture of growing our own food. You never see allotments in Spain or Italy.
I live in the sticks, and through the pub I'm friends with most of the local farmers, I think I'd offer to work for them, in exchange for food.
surley we'd like to perpetuate the relationships we have in the here and now.
After an 'event' farming will surely be more labour intensive. And what taked a single farmer 2 days to do with a 5million pound satellite guided compter controlled super tracter 2 days, will take dozens of men weeks with horses and bulls, or small vegi oil powered tractors.

[Plymtom]

After an 'event' farming will surely be more labour intensive. And what taked a single farmer 2 days to do with a 5million pound satellite guided compter controlled super tracter 2 days, will take dozens of men weeks with horses and bulls, or small vegi oil powered tractors.

Sensible point there and perhaps an eventuality in any case I believe, oil will end or become much more exclusive, the biggest mistake of modern times will prove to be globalization, small communities have worked for hundreds of years and it has to, at least to some extent revert back to that.

[J23]

If SHTF happens and preppers will get idea of going into woodlands I imagine myself terraces of tents one next to another in rows, like streets, with corner tent shops and takeaways with fried cons and squirel kebabs . there's not much woodland to stay in unnoticed

[lonewolf]

I suppose it all depends on how much woodland you can "control" and hang on to post SHTF. you'd be surprised how big an area 2 - 5 acres actually is.