Have enjoyed so many of the posts and discussions. This is a great community with a wealth of knowledge and experience. Truly a shining example of what the Internet can be when you tap into good folks.

So, to pick your brains a bit, I'm wondering how folks feel about the issue of foraging for meals and food, and perhaps, by extension, other natural resources for a more primitive camping experience such as building a brush shelter, etc.

Certainly, there are many books on identifying wild foods, edible plants, and surviving in general. Just this year, I received two books on wilderness survival for Christmas from family and friends who, I suppose, worry about me when I'm not home. (Not that I'd carry 5 lbs. of books in my pack.)

Anyway, with the exception of some of the more plentiful juicier wild berries (black, rasp, and mul) and some sassafras roots, I rarely feel comfortable impacting the land and competing with the native wildlife for food.

Of course, I would never consider trapping or otherwise killing small animals or game unless it was a true survival situation, although fishing is definitely fine with me.

As a hiking philosophy, ideally, I don't want anything to be worse off because of my passing through, not the wildlife, not the spiders, not the plants. (Well, okay, maybe the bloodsuckers aren't off limits so much, and the fish, but you get my drift.)

And yet, the wilderness has enormous resources wherever you look, especially in certain seasons, that could be used to supplement the amount of food carried or, according to some, replace it altogether. There certainly is a bit of a mystique to surviving solely on nature, but even Les Stroud seems to do a lot of three and four-day fasts.

Living off the land, while not necessarily being the most appetizing way to live, kept a lot of our ancestors alive. But with today's already significant manmade pressure on the environment and wildlife, I have a tough time justifying the practice of foraging while backpacking, even though it could lighten the load considerably.

Certainly there are some regulations to deal with when using public and park lands, although as far as I am aware, foraging for immediate and personal consumption is generally okay. It's the people that are poaching ginseng and morels that are a real problem but I suppose that is another issue.

I'm not on the Survivorman bandwagon, but a more primitive camping style does have a certain appeal, especially when coupled with contemporary equipment and practices. I'm also thinking, though, that to really do this right, absent a real emergency, you would need to practice this type of camping on private land, preferably your own.

So, thoughts. What are your experiences either in a survival situation or by choice in feeding off the land, where allowed. Is it worth it? How does it fit in to your overall philosophy regarding your relationship to nature when you are out there? Certainly a handful of huckleberries or mulberries can make a world of difference to a breakfast of Bisquick pancakes, but do you ever go beyond that level, and how did that work for you?

Thanks.