Living in National Forests, National Grasslands, and BLM Lands

Communities of Rewilding
#1

First and foremost, I’m quite new to this forum, so if this idea has been discussed before, feel free to direct me to the appropriate thread.

I’m curious to know if anyone has ever considered being semi-nomadic and living off of (you guessed it) BLM lands or national grasslands and forests. If one were to establish his of herself in an area near multiple national forests or grasslands and the like, it would - I imagine - be quite simple to move camp every 14 days back and forth between a selection of campsites. Ideally a small town, or even a few, would be within 30-50 miles, allowing access to supplies unable to be manufactured in the backwoods. Likely it would take some time to become totally independent of money, chiefly because of fuel and inexperience, so being close to a small town would also make employment a possibility too.

It’s all just a vague idea I’ve been toying around with for the last week or so. Has anyone around here ever tried something like this or been keen to try it?

#2

Yeah, I’ve considered it often. And I’ll probably try it in a couple years, but my skills aren’t where they need to be yet. A debri shelter might be quite hard to notice, at least in the short term.

#3

This is what I’ve been considering doing. There is actually a quite large national forest only 30-60 miles away from me right now. And it has free primitive camping, so that’s something I’ve been looking into. However, I typically wanted to live in Vermont as more of a permanent location, but that’s a long way from here.

In general though, I’ve thought about it. And I guess some areas are more lenient on what you can and can’t do.

#4

I’ve been more than considering living off of blm lands or national forests, I know that I have the necessary skills to do so; I know how to hunt, grow plants, log, build, cooking, fish, track, and build fires, I just don’t have living experience. I’m currently gathering supplies to make it possible and to acclimate myself in such a life, all I’m trying to do now is to find a remote forest area to live permanently, it doesn’t really have to be remote, more of a place where I won’t get ran off from.

#5

Well, I’ve decided this is exactly what I’m going to try in 2016. Come this spring, I’m going to load up and look for a town nicely ensconced in BLM land so I can simply do dispersed camping. By no means will it be living off the land, as I have to come up with at least $500 a month for my vehicle payments, but, with a regular job in the town, I should have ample time to jump through society’s hoops and try to remove myself from its clutches more and more. I’ll let ya’ll know how feasible it is for a modern, unskilled pseudo-primitive :wink:

1 Like