Our Team
Mila Saunders
Mila is a level 3 tracker certified in the Cybertracker system, achieving an impressive 99% in recognition and interpretation of track and sign Specialist Evaluation, and a level 3 in the art of trailing animals. She organises tracking and trailing courses to different locations across Europe with John Rhyder and is assisting on the long-term Wildlife Identification & Tracking course at Woodcraft School in UK plus various other tracking programmes.
Mila has always had a strong interest in animals and has followed this interest 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!
Mila originates from Poland but lives in UK for over 14 years now, hence speaking Polish and English, and teaching in Poland and UK. Currently based mainly in Devon, but travels a lot.
John Rhyder
John is a naturalist, woodsman, wildlife tracker and writer and is both founder and Head Instructor at Woodcraft School. John is one of the most experienced authorities in the field of bushcraft in the UK with an impressive pedigree including being appointed as chief instructor for Ray Mears, receiving his antler handled instructor knife exceptionally after his first season as an instructor in 1997/98. He is the originator of the first accredited bushcraft and related programmes in the UK using the NCFE as the awarding body. John has gained his Accredited Practitioner through the Institute of Outdoor Learning (APIOL) as well as as designing and writing the training & assessment criteria for the IOL’s Foundational Bushcraft Competency certificate. Additionally he has written a Bushcraft Award for a leading youth organisation, the Woodcraft Folk. he also designed and taught bushcraft specific modules for a foundation degree ran through Plumpton College. John has also been lucky enough travel widely and has studied on, and led bushcraft, tracking and wildlife tours across Europe and Scandinavia as well as Africa and the USA.
John has also worked and taught in arboriculture, conservation and habitat management and has been teaching since 1994 making this a full time career. He is a lifelong naturalist and is certified through CyberTracker conservation as a Senior tracker. John is also works as an evaluator assessing both track and sign identification and trailing in this region. He is also the track and sign external evaluator for Europe. To expand his knowledge John has been certificated in Germany, Holland and Spain. He is a qualified arborist and also holds a University certificate in Species Identification & Biological Recording. John has been endorsed as an instructor in natural navigation techniques through Tristan Gooley and his school of natural navigation.
As a writer, John has contributed many articles for various publications and has authored three books. Track and Sign a guide to the tracks and signs of UK mammals and birds, and Woodcraft a guide to using trees and timber are both published by the History press. Additionally he has produced The Animal Tracks Field Guide containing life sized drawings of Britains mammals and birds. These books can be ordered here.
Collaborators
Kersey Lawrence and Lee Gutteridge
Kersey Lawrence and Lee Gutteridge are Senior Trackers and Evaluators with CyberTracker Conservation. Kersey is also the Director of Education and Research for Original Wisdom and Lee is the Owner and Principal Trainer for Nature Guide Training. They run guide training, tracking, education and research programs across the world. Kersey holds a doctorate from the University of Connecticut in the ecology of tracking and the culture of trackers. She combines quantitative and qualitative methods, incorporating local knowledge and skill into modern science to advance our wholistic understanding of the natural world. Lee is one of the most highly qualified guides, and guide trainers, in Africa, and is the author of ten natural history and tracking books. Graduates of his training school have gone on to work at or establish some of the most prestigious lodges in Africa. Kersey and Lee’s work takes them all over the world, with the majority of their focus on the African savannas and the forests of North America. There, they teach tracking experientially, and ensure that trackers meet the internationally recognized gold-standard set by CyberTracker. Together, they facilitate TrackerMentoring.com, an international online education company and published The Tracker Mentoring Manual. Through their passion for tracking, Kersey and Lee strive to inspire others to appreciate and protect the diverse beauty of our planet.
