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.

← All 15 Practice Keys

Practice Key

Track & ask questions

Who has been here, and what questions will lead you to the answer?

A worn animal trail through a carpet of white wood anemones

Two hazelnut shells with neat gnawed holes on an oak leaf

A footprint, a bent stem or a nibbled nut can open up a story about who shares a place with you. Tracking is paying attention to the traces of life: describe what you can actually see first, then ask who, what, when, where, why and how.

You don't need to find the animal or solve the mystery for it to deepen your connection. Each sign teaches you something about the food, shelter and routes a place offers. And 'I don't know yet' is a perfectly good tracking observation. Leave the sign be and come back another day.

Try this week

Find one sign and describe it before guessing what made it.
Look under a hazel or oak for opened nuts.
Check a muddy gateway for prints.

Explore 69 Track & ask questions 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