For Forest School Staff, Teachers, After School Leaders, and Homeschoolers:
Learn Nature Skills, Crafts, Challenges & Games
that awakens, inspires and engages your students.
This is a live, in person, hands-on training.
October 10-12, 2025 at Hawk Circle, Cherry Valley, NY
The skills you'll learn work because they are connected directly with our survival, and they are hardwired into us.
Our curriculum has been field tested for fifteen thousand years, because earth skills has been part of ourhuman experience since we first picked up a rock or stick.
You don't need to be in the wilderness for these activities, or skills or crafts. They work in all kinds of settings, with everyone, and you can learn to be proficient in just a few days.
“There is a biological imperative built into our DNA to learn to make useful tools, cook over a fire and be independant. This drive is strongest in childhood, and mastering them leads is tremendous joy, creativity and a sense of freedom.” ― Ricardo Sierra
Program Curriculum
- Campfire Cooking
- Animal Tracking Games
- Coal Burning Bowls & Spoons
- Forest Educator Program Design
- Knot Craft & Tarpology
- Leathercraft & Rawhide Pouches
- Wild Foods Foraging
- Stone Tools
- Managing Behavior Issues
(and more...)
This program is taught for participants at all experience levels
Sign up as a group of two or more
and get a discount on each Participant's Course Tuition.
Contact ricardo for Checkout Code.
Bushcraft Skills
Make stone tools, throwing sticks, fish spears, digging sticks, rawhide & leather pouches, tarp shelters and more...
Forest Leadership
Discover the roots of leadership & team building, communication, problem solving, creativity using wilderness challenges.
Experiential Learning
You will get to know what this work feels like from the student's perspective, and find your own 'flow'.
Prepare to make cool stuff and get 'into it'!
Elemental Nature
The forest trails,, misty mornings and autumn colors all work their magic.
The starry skies and crackling campfires gently completes our full days.
Ricardo Sierra
Ricardo is the co-founder and co-director of the Hawk Circle Wilderness Education & Retreat Center. He is the host and creator of the Forest Educator Podcast, and several 'Forest Education Training Programs', leading educators, teachers and counselors in skills and approaches that have been successful for decades.
Ricardo has worked in nature based education for adults, families, children, youth and staff for over 35 years, and he's worked in a vast spectrum of educational settings throughout the US as well as in New York State.
Lodging & Food
Participants will stay in heated cabins and enjoy home cooked meals throughout the Retreat.
(We can accommodate some dietary restrictions with advanced notice.)
Getting Here
We are located near Cooperstown in Central New York, and can arrange airport, bus or train pickup from Albany NY with advanced notice for an additional fee.
Get our directions address here if you are driving!
Program Dates: October 10-12, 2025
Program Fee: $795
Includes Lodging, Meals, all Instruction and Craft Materials throughout the program.
Participants who sign up together can get a tuition discount for each student.
Message Ricardo for Group Discount Code
To Make Different Payment Arrangements,
please email Ricardo at Ricardo.J.Sierra@gmail.com