CEDAR FALLS - A knife would go a long ways toward helping Chris Anderson survive if he was lost in the wilderness.

With the Hartman Reserve Nature Center program coordinator's know-how, he could snare a small animal for food then start a fire to cook and find warmth. His survival skills can also be used in a sustainable approach to outdoor recreation, like camping and hiking, called bushcraft. Anderson taught the bushcrafting approach to nine people during a Hartman program Saturday.

"The foundations of bushcraft are knowledge and a knife," Anderson told the group. Although his demonstrations did involve more than a knife, bushcrafting doesn't rely on elaborate or expensive gear. Rather, practitioners use minimal basic equipment and look to the natural surroundings for many materials they need.

Anderson pulled out a $30 Army surplus poncho rolled up and tied together in a loop, a neat package containing most of his gear for camping. "So, it's a raincoat, it's a tent, it's a sleeping bag," he said, unrolling the pack to reveal pots, knives, cooking equipment and more. "If everything you carry only has one use it's of no use," he said.

He also showed participants how to effectively build a fire and light it without matches. He demonstrated shaving strips of wood off a split log for kindling and making fast-burning "feather sticks" by leaving shavings attached to firewood.

Anderson started his fire with sparks from running the back side of the saw on his Swiss army knife against a man-made flint called a Swedish fire steel. The sparks easily light a cotton ball covered with bag balm that he carries in an Altoids tin. Vaseline lip balm is another substance that can be used as fuel, and the cotton balls can be replaced with the fluff from a cottonwood tree or birch tree bark.

"If you can't get a fire lit with this in any conditions, you probably shouldn't be out in the woods," he said.

Anderson showed participants how to braid "cordage" - which could be twine or natural fibers from basswood bark, for example - into sturdy rope for uses from strengthening your shelter to snaring some food. He pulled a bow saw blade out of his pack and fashioned a handle from thick branch lengths and a taut cord. He also demonstrated using a small alcohol-fueled burner for boiling water and how to make a dutch oven from two aluminum pots.

Program participants appreciated some of the tips they picked up from Anderson.

"I hadn't seen the alcohol stove before, or how to make the rope," said Mike Rodebusch, a scoutmaster from Waterloo. "That was real slick. I plan to use these skills."

Waterloo resident Chad Grimm, another scoutmaster, asked Anderson about the bannock, an unleavened bread mix made of flour, salt and baking soda. "I'm an avid Dutch oven cooker," he said.

Anderson noted people don't have to travel far to use bushcraft practices. "A lot of the things that I'm teaching you, you don't have to do in a wilderness area. You can practice them in your own backyard," he said.

"We've got great areas in Black Hawk County, great areas in Iowa. Wilderness is more a state of mind than a place on a map."