DownloadThe Portobello Bookshop Gift Guide 2024

Teachers in the Forest

New Lessons from an Old World

Barry Babcock author Daniel J Rice editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Riverfeet Press

Published:23rd Jun '22

Should be back in stock very soon

Teachers in the Forest cover

“A rewarding and enriching fusion of traditional wisdom, science and first-hand experience.” —Tristan Gooley, author of The Natural Navigator, and How to Read Nature


Drawing from a similar lifestyle and environmental ethic as Henry D. Thoreau and Aldo Leopold, Babcock has lived more than two decades off-grid deep in the forest near the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Here he has discovered a balance in the interconnectedness of all life in the woods, and derived his sustenance from hunting, fishing, gardening, gathering wild food, providing water from a hand-pump well and minimal electricity from the sun. He befriended an Ojibwe Elder, Chi-Ma’iingan (Big Wolf), from whom he learned the Seven Grandfather Teachings (Wisdom, Love, Respect, Courage, Honesty, Humility, and Truth). Each of these seven teachings are represented by an animal. In this collection, Babcock shares his love of the natural world through a unique land ethic that combines the ideology of Thoreau and Leopold, and that which he learned from Chi-Ma’iingan.

Babcock proposes a radical shift in how Americans support our environment and wildlife. He was recently featured in the documentary films: MEDICINE OF THE WOLF, and WOLF SPIRIT.

From these pages: “We must stop seeing the natural world as a commodity and start seeing it as we would see a family member—something to love, protect, care for, and cherish.”

Teachers in the Forest holds power and inspiration ... it has a way of further opening your eyes and ears to the sights and sounds of wilderness ... appealing to us to recognize not just our responsibility to nature, but our place in it.” —Minneapolis Star Tribune


“Begin reading at any point in Teachers in the Forest and you will discover a calm curiosity towards the natural world. Babcock’s voice inspires with rich lessons on the history, culture, plants and animals of our wild places. The teachings in this collection are like the wolf; timeless and alive.” —Maureen Hackett, MD, Founder and President of Howling for Wolves


“The teachings contained within this book belong to the author’s decades afield as both hunter and self-provider and are also strongly influenced by his close ties to the Ojibwe people and their connection to the land and its animals.”  —Traditional Bowhunter Magazine


"Babcock understands where true wisdom comes from, where to find it. With humility, he turns to the earth and all its living beings, the teachings of the Seven Grandfathers that his friend Larry Stillday, an Anishinaabe tribal member, introduces him to. In clear and compelling prose, Babcock tells story after story of his home ground in Minnesota, of wolves and trumpeter swans and cranes and bear, and we fortunate readers are given a glimpse of wildness and wilderness, a chance to fall in love again and to learn from the first teachers.  —Todd Davis, author of Coffin Honey and Native Species


“This book is a deeply poetic account of one man’s quest to live off the land and his battle-cry to protect it.” —Julia Huffman, Director of Medicine of the Wolf and Wolf Spirit


"This book will heighten the way you interpret and value our remaining wild places.” —Daniel J. Rice, author of The Unpeopled Season


“Babcock is a curious, persistent, conscientious man who cares deeply about the land.” —Katie Carter, KAXE Radio


“This book is a powerful tool for anyone yearning to forge a stronger spiritual and physical relationship with wild nature, no matter where you live.” —David Petersen, author of On the Wild Edge: In Search of A Natural Life

ISBN: 9781736089439

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

268 pages

This is the complete publisher quality edition. There was a short print run of this book previously published in 2015.