A lot of people freely interchange the words survival and bushcraft when talking about the skills needed for existing in the wild, but for the purposes of this blog I'd like to clarify what I perceive to be the difference.
When speaking of bushcraft, typically most people are referring to those sustainable skills applied in a primitive situation. Bushcraft is a learned adaptation to a deliberate set of circumstances we place ourselves in willingly. Bushcraft is a hobby, a "craft" -as the name asserts- and like any other craft, the individual is striving to master it through planned outings that replicate what they believe represent a bushcraft scenario. This involves (to a greater or lesser degree) a controlled environment where a person can be challenged, but not entirely endangered. Obviously situations vary and some choose to endure more risks and austere environments than others, but the common denominator is that the experience is planned, and knowingly entered into.
Survival on the other hand is by its very nature abrupt and involuntary. It occurs when we least expect it, when we are least prepared physically and/or mentally, when we have the fewest supplies and equipment, when we are the furthest from help and medical aid, and when the environment and weather are at its least forgiving. We don't get to choose the scenario or when it ends; in fact we don't get very much say at all about the condition of the circumstances we suddenly find ourselves in -except how we act. To make things worse, we may already be sick with the flu, or suffering with a broken arm, or trying to manage a family crises at home. Survival isn't just a test, it's THE test. It's that moment you always thought you would have time to prepare for but suddenly realize you never got around to. It's that moment you suddenly scramble to remember that certain tip you read, that video hack on you saw on YouTube or that trick you learned about from that forum you last visited, because you know that you are drastically unprepared for what you are about to experience.
All survival skills however are useful in bushcraft, however, very few bushcraft skills are applicable or relevant to survival since the energy and time needed to implement extensive basket weaving, a drying rack, or a wattle fence simply do not provide the return on investment that a legitimate survival situation requires. Compare survival to emergency first aid and bushcraft to continued (medical) care. When you need follow the ABC's to save a patient, wasting time instead treating for shock or trying to remember how to place the patient into the recovery position isn't helpful in that moment.
If you need to survive in the most unforgiving climes, despite the lack of shelter, fire, food, freshwater, medical supplies, and communication with the outside world, then that is ALL you need to focus on learning how to do. Learning how to sustain an existence past surviving is good to know but not essential unless you plan to homestead. Learn what you need to know and practice relentlessly. Know at least two methods for building a fire, constructing a shelter, obtaining food (foraging and trapping), and purifying water without conventional means. and study field hygiene/sanitation. Knowing how to prevent illness and infection is much easier than learning all the medical knowledge required for dealing with them. But learn those too if you can. And finally, devote some time on learning how to self-rescue by learning the basic ground-to-air-signals and orienteering so that you don't sit idle waiting for help that may never arrive.
True survival is not glamorous and it is not planned, but it can be managed and controlled if you educate yourself, get proper training, and practice your skills. It's not worth finding out the hard way that you don't know what it takes to make it back home from out of the wild.
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