About
Tracker, Naturalist, Woodsman, and Author
Founder and Head Instructor at Woodcraft School
John Rhyder is a wildlife tracker, naturalist and woodsman. He holds the title of Senior Tracker, certified by CyberTracker Conservation, and is an evaluator for both Track and Sign Identification and Trailing. He is also the European Track and Sign External Evaluator for the CyberTracker system and a co-founder of European Wildlife Tracking.
CyberTracker provides the only internationally recognised assessment system for wildlife tracking, and John’s qualifications and evaluator roles place him at the highest levels of the system. Tracking is now his principal specialist field, and his work has taken him across the UK, Europe, Scandinavia, Africa and North America.
John’s knowledge of the natural world, however, extends well beyond tracking. He has maintained an interesting wildlife nature and the outdoors for as long as he can remember, and how people live and interact with the landscape.
His professional background began in arboriculture and woodland management. He worked in the woods carrying out woodland surveys, management plans and habitat work, while also teaching arboriculture and habitat management on a part-time basis. At this time he was also experimenting with traditional woodland crafts as a way of utilising the material from woodland restoration work. This practical experience provided the foundation for his extensive knowledge of trees, woodland and natural history, and led to a particular interest in plants and their uses. He has subsequently developed a high level of knowledge in plant identification and ethnobotany.
John has taught professionally since 1994 and has more than 30 years’ experience teaching bushcraft and related outdoor skills at a high level. He founded Woodcraft School in 2000, and the school continues to reflect the breadth of his experience across range of subject areas.
In 1997 John became chief instructor for Ray Mears, beginning a long career in professional bushcraft education. He subsequently helped develop accredited bushcraft education in the UK, working with NCFE and the Institute of Outdoor Learning, and developed and taught bushcraft modules for Plumpton College’s foundation degree.
While tracking and ethnobotany are now John’s principal specialist areas, his wider knowledge as a woodsman and naturalist remains central to his work. The different subjects available through John and Woodcraft School are closely connected by a practical understanding of the natural world and the landscapes in which we live and work.
John is also an author. His books include Woodcraft: A Guide to Using Trees and Timber, Bird Tracks, Track and Sign: A Guide to the Tracks and Signs of UK Mammals and Birds, and Animal Tracks Field Guide. He has also written numerous articles on tracking, woodcraft and natural history.
Today, John continues to develop Woodcraft School around his specialist knowledge and experience, combining wildlife tracking, ethnobotany, natural history and woodsmanship through specialist training, field programmes, tracking evaluations, online delivery writing and selected professional projects.
Whether you are looking for a wildlife tracker or for a teacher about tracking, you need look no further than John Rhyder. In all respects, John is among the very best. I have seen him find and follow the trails of Fallow, Roe and Red deer, and I have seen him trail to within 35 meters of bedded animals that are unaware of our presence. He is as reliable in his skill at identifying tracks and sign as he is at trailing the animals that left them. In addition, John has taught for many years. He is clear, to the point, expert at managing groups in all conditions, and he is quick witted, funny! I can think of no one with whom I would rather work, track, learn, laugh or share a meal than John Rhyder. I am confident that you will find him a pleasure.
Nate Harvey
Evaluator, Senior Tracker, CyberTracker Conservation
You can listen to a podcast of John talking about his work with Paul Kirtley here.
Support Staff
Phil Brooke
Phil has been connected with Woodcraft School for many years initially as a student and now as an instructor. He successfully completed our ten month Certificate in Bushcraft Leadership over 12 years ago and almost immediately began to work for the company and has proved to be an excellent teacher of the subject. Phil now runs several of our programmes under license after many years of training with us, namely: The Certificate in Applied Bushcraft Level 4, The Intermediate Bushcraft Award Level 2 and the Traditional Bow making Level 4. These awards are still Woodcraft School qualifications and therefore Phil carries our reputation forwards together with his own. This arrangement reflects our faith in his ability and character as an instructor.
Phil is especially interested and skilled in traditional archery also working as a traditional bowyer and has taken on our Bow making workshops. He is a level three tracker through CyberTracker conservation, one of only a handful in the country. Phil continues to study in and around the subjects we specialise in and has been successful in completing almost all of our programmes giving him an excellent all round knowledge of our core subjects of bushcraft, ethnobotany and wildlife tracking.
Phil also makes and sells traditional bows and arrows and supplies bow staves. If you are interested in any of his excellent bows, arrows and bow staves, or want to book on a bow making course please visit his website here.
Mila Saunders
Mila is a wildlife tracker certified in the Cybertracker system, achieving an impressive 100% in recognition and interpretation of track and sign, professional level, and a level 3 in the art of trailing animals. She organises tracking and trailing courses to different locations across Europe with John Rhyder. Mila has always had a strong interest in animals and has followed this passion into a varied and fascinating career path: she has been a horse rider, a dog musher, an animal activist running her own NGOs, studied Marine Biology in Poland, Arctic Biology in Svalbard, researched grey seal behaviour in Sweden. She also took part in a successful grey seal reintroduction project in the Southern Baltic and worked in animal hospitals. Since becoming a mother, she settled in England, became a yoga teacher for few years, after which she went into nature connection studies, where she discovered the art of tracking. Mila finds tracking as great way to connect to nature and the living world, and the best way of learning directly from wildlife. She has passed her love of tracking animals to her entire family who are now also hooked!
Chris Collins
Despite being desk-bound for most of the week in a marketing role, Chris is a passionate student of the natural world and is at his happiest exploring our forests, mountains and countryside. A passionate hillwalker, Chris’s interest in nature stemmed from a desire to understand the plants and wildlife he was observing on his walks, a journey that ultimately led him to completing the Practical Ethnobotany and Plant Identification and Wildlife Identification and Tracking Level 4 courses with Woodcraft School, as well as entering into the CyberTracker system. Chris is also involved with Scouting and the Wildlife Trust near his New Forest home.
Gavin Chambers
Gavin grew up in Norfolk, and spent his days outdoors fishing, building camps and generally exploring his local area. He developed a wanderlust in his teens which has never left and was the key to opening a door to the natural world, particularly bird and wildlife watching with an emphasis on animal behaviour and wilderness travel . Bushcraft and expedition skills became a big part of all of this as they gave him the skills to go to these places.
Gavin is a mountain leader and has been involved in and led expeditions to various parts of the world, from Northern Canada to Borneo, South America and Nepal and Europe and various countries in Africa. He has a particular interest on the natural world and the anthropology of indigenous peoples and is a great field naturalist.
