Supporting Nature cover

Live wilder · ebook & Wilding activity guide collection

Supporting Nature

Giving back to the wild

How can I give back to the place that gives to me?

Bug hotels, bee homes, hedgehog highways, nesting boxes, ponds and citizen science.

Bought from re-wild before? Log in and you only pay for the Wilding activity guides you don’t already own.

🃏 Includes a printable card set: every Wilding activity guide as an A6 card (four to an A4 sheet) to spread out, plan with or use for a lucky dip. See a sample

The ebook
72 Wilding activity guides as printable PDFs
Templates and charts the Wilding activity guides need
A printable card set: every guide as an A6 card

Coming soon. Jay is giving this book and its Wilding activity guides a final proofread before they go on sale as downloads. Ask to be told when they're ready.

Safety first. Outdoor activities carry real risks. Each Wilding activity guide has safety notes, but you are responsible for yourself and anyone in your care. Supervise children, get permission, never eat anything you cannot identify with certainty, and only light fires where it is allowed and safe.

The Wilding activity guides in this collection

Support nature

Everyday care

+ printableLitter huntSupport nature

Litter yogaSupport nature

Leave it beSupport nature

DiversitySupport nature

Supporting invertebrates

Making a beetle bucketSupport nature

Making a leaf habitatSupport nature

Making a bug hotelSupport nature

Making a solitary bee homeSupport nature

Making a bumble bee boxSupport nature

Making a bee nestSupport nature

Making a bee scrapeSupport nature

Making a bee watering stationSupport nature

Creating and connecting habitats

Making compostSupport nature

Making a wormerySupport nature

Creating a deadwood habitatSupport nature

Making a log wallSupport nature

Making a hibernaculumSupport nature

Making a small wildlife pondSupport nature Making a hedgehog highwaySupport nature

Making a dead hedgeSupport nature

Growing plants for wildlife

Planning a butterfly & bee gardenSupport nature

+ printableGathering seeds from plants & treesSupport nature

Making & gifting a ‘seed gratitude ball’Support nature

Growing a pollinator habitat from seedsSupport nature

Growing a pollinator habitat with plant plugsSupport nature

Taking & growing cuttingsSupport nature

Splitting plantsSupport nature

+ printableGrowing a small tree saplingSupport nature

+ printablePlanting a sapling in the groundSupport nature

Planting & maintaining a wildlife hedgerowSupport nature

Supporting mammals

+ printableMaking a hedgehog homeSupport nature

Making a bat homeSupport nature

Creating a garden watering holeSupport nature

Making a mammal tableSupport nature

Protecting established trees and local nature

Protect a treeSupport nature

ConserveSupport nature

Nature legacySupport nature

Supporting birds

Window warningsSupport nature

Sharing the garden with birdsSupport nature

Providing nesting materialsSupport nature

Making & maintaining a bird bathSupport nature

Providing food for birdsSupport nature Making a bird feederSupport nature

Maintaining a bird feederSupport nature

Building & positioning a blue tit nesting boxSupport nature

Building & positioning a robin nesting boxSupport nature

Building & positioning a swift homeSupport nature

Maintaining a bird nesting boxSupport nature

Making a bird roosting pocketSupport nature

Wildlife surveys and recording

+ printableThe big bug countSupport nature

The UK ladybird surveySupport nature

The big butterfly countSupport nature

Mammal map appSupport nature

Become a citizen scientistSupport nature

Using iNaturalistSupport nature

+ printableHow to do a dead wood surveySupport nature

BTO Bird TrackSupport nature

BTO Garden BirdWatchSupport nature

RSPB Big Garden BirdwatchSupport nature

+ printableBird countSupport nature

Dive into field guides

Invertebrates

How to make & use a pitfall trapDive into field guides

How to make an earwig trapDive into field guides

How to make a pooterDive into field guides

How to use a pooterDive into field guides

Using a sweep netDive into field guides

How to make & use a moth trapDive into field guides

How to attract moths by sugaringDive into field guides

Making a beating trayDive into field guides

Reptiles and freshwater wildlife

Pond dippingDive into field guides

Reading habitats and ecological connections

How to do a line transectDive into field guides

How to make a jar terrariumDive into field guides

How to measure rainfallDive into field guides

← Back to the Wilding Rucksack

Safety, and where the Wilding activity guides come from

Look after yourself and others. Outdoor activities carry real risks: fire, tools, water, weather, heights, plants, fungi, animals and getting lost. Every Wilding activity guide includes safety notes, but you are responsible for your own safety and for anyone in your care. Supervise children closely, get the landowner's permission, follow the Countryside Code, never eat anything you cannot identify with complete certainty, and only light fires where it is allowed and safe. If in doubt, leave it out.

With gratitude to the lineage. Wilding and its Practice Keys are inspired by the work of Jon Young and colleagues: the core routines of nature connection in the 8 Shields approach, also known as Coyote Mentoring, shared in Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature (Young, Haas & McGown). Many of the Wilding activity guides grew from those routines.

These ways of noticing and belonging are far older than any book. They grow from the knowledge of Indigenous and land-based peoples around the world, who have lived in close relationship with the land for thousands of years and have kept that knowledge alive, often in the face of great loss. Jon Young describes 8 Shields as built on patterns of nature connection he found in Indigenous cultures around the world, and on what his mentors taught him, including the teachings passed down through Tom Brown Jr. from Grandfather Stalking Wolf. Our own ancestors in these islands once knew the land in this way too.

I offer Wilding with deep respect and thanks to all of them. It does not claim or copy any culture's ceremonies or sacred practices. It is a UK way of carrying forward simple, shared human ways of paying attention, giving thanks and belonging to a place. — Jay