The 15 Practice Keys

Each Practice Key is a simple, repeatable way of spending time with nature. Some will call to you straight away; others will make sense later. There is no right order.

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Practice Key

Dive into field guides

What is it, and how will you get to know it as a neighbour?

A nature table with field guides, a nest, feathers and finds

A brass hand lens held over lichen on a birch log

A field guide lets you set your own observations alongside those of other naturalists. Look first at size and shape, then two or three distinctive details, where it is and what it's doing. Use the guide to narrow it down, and if the evidence isn't there yet, leave the name open. Going back to check is a skill, not a failure.

Guides give names; repeated encounters give them meaning. Once you have a likely name, ask what it needs, who depends on it and where you might find it again. Unnamed life slowly becomes a community of neighbours.

Try this week

Pick five neighbours: a bird, tree, flower, insect and wildcard.
Look one up, then go back and check the details.
Write 'possibly' next to any name you're unsure of.

Explore 136 Dive into field guides activity guides Back to the Practice Keys

Safety, and where the 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 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. The Wilding Practice Keys and many of the activities in the activity guides have been adapted from the core routines of nature connection in the 8 Shields approach (Coyote Mentoring), mapped by Jon Young and shared in Coyote's Guide to Connecting with Nature (Young, Haas & McGown).

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