"Basic Safe Travel and Boreal Survival Handbook" was compiled for outdoor educators and the Junior Forest Warden movement mostly from articles originally published in "Wilderness Arts and Recreation Magazine" that had become out of print but much sought after. Some of the articles were the basis for Kochanski's "Bushcraft". A small fraction of the book will seem familiar but the rest makes an excellent complement to "Bushcraft" which devotes a minimum of references to actual survival while "Basic Safe Travel and Boreal Survival Handbook" is mostly survival.

"Bushcraft" is devoted mostly on how to use nature as the source of materials to live comfortably in the bush while "Basic Safe Travel and Boreal survival Handbook" goes into great length on how to cope with the major stresses one is apt to encounter when survival is a possibility. The topics of Dehydration, hypothermia and sleep deprivation are covered in detail. Sleeping bags, bush beds and shelters, warming and signal fires, knife skills, useful knots and conduct in bear country are touched upon.

Concerning travel, there is a section on navigation with map and compass, mountain travel and considerable coverage devoted to wading rivers safely. Crossing rivers on foot accounts for being the leading cause of fatalities that beset outdoor recreationists.