OTTAWA — A recent survey conducted by Scouts Canada, is asking Canadians about their camping competency. They found in their survey that overall Canadians lacked in basic outdoor skills.
According to Scouts Canada, the country's leading co-ed youth organization, the average Canadian may be surprisingly baffled by camping basics. In their opinion. “Outdoor and camping skills are good for more than just a fun weekend in nature; adventure-based play outside leads to better developed motor skills, social behaviour, independence, and conflict resolution skills that support physical and mental well-being in youth development.”
Scouts Canada found that 36.3 per cent of Canadians said their camping skills are “OK”, while 39 per cent said that their skills are poor, and in fact Scouts Canada recorded that for this group their skills may be “outright dangerous.”
It recently surveyed 1,000 Canadians and on May 2, 2022 it shared the results of this survey. They reported their key finding according to categories in order to address what Scouts Canada believed were key components for camping competency. Their categories looked like this:
Some Key Findings National:
- Bear’ly ready
Asked what they would do if they encountered a Black Bear in the woods, a total of 23.2 per cent of Canadians would do the wrong thing, such as: 'Run' (8.6 per cent), 'Play Metallica on iPhone and live stream '(5.6 per cent), 'stare directly into their eyes to scare them' (5.5 per cent) or (an extremely bad idea) 'attack first' (3.2 per cent). 14.9 per cent of Canadians simply said that they don't know.
- Don’t eat that
Asked which plants from a list of wild plants were safe to eat, 46.7 per cent of Canadians flat out admitted they had 'no idea.' A total of 26.4 per cent of Canadians incorrectly identified wild plants such as Winter berry and Buckthorn as 'safe to eat' (they are NOT.)
"We're having a little fun with this survey, but the real point is that we wanted to understand the gaps that Canadians are facing in their connection with nature and important outdoor skills, and how Scouting meets that need by grounding kids in real-world experiences that prepare them for life," said Siobhan Ward, Youth Program Specialist and Rover Scout with Scouts Canada. "When families and youth in Canada are empowered with skills to enjoy fun outdoor adventures with confidence and safety, they are also set up for success in the world as resilient, capable and well-rounded individuals."
- Canadians admit that they’re pretty “meh” at camping
Asked to rate the camping competence of 'most Canadians' respondents of the survey were generally positive with 61.7 per cent answering 'Ok.' 12.0 per cent optimistically said 'high.'14.7 per cent said 'poor.'6.4 per cent said 'bad.' 5.2 per cent said 'dangerous.'
Asked to rate their own level of camping competence, only 36.3 per cent of Canadians said 'ok,' while 39 per cent admitted their skills are poor, if not outright dangerous –giving examples such as: ( in-- burn down the tent kind, drink from a puddle, couldn't make it through the night kind of 'dangerous').
"We're calling on seasoned Canadian campers and nature lovers who DO know what they are doing to volunteer and help even more youth in Canada benefit from Scouting. We're also calling on individuals who are passionate about youth leadership and empowerment, to volunteer and develop outdoor skills along their Scouting journey through training and peer support," added Ward.
4. Wet and wild
When participants were asked how to properly dry wet clothing and gear, almost half of Canadians (46.9 per cent) said 'they don't know.' On the plus side, the survey showed that 36.0 per cent correctly responded 'wring out and drape.'
When participants answered questions about how to pitch up a tent most were confident that they knew how with the majority saying it would take them about 30 minutes to do this.
The Scouts Canada survey identified some of the worst camping mistakes, most of which seemed to show the sense of humour Canadians have regarding their incompetency as campers. Scouts Canada shared that when asked to consider their biggest camping mistakes, they provided a variety of examples, including, eating moss.
Scouts Canada is a not-for-profit organization and a member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement.
