Instructors

Best-Selling Author, Backcountry Skills Expert and Instructor, Master Naturalist 

 

 

Craig Caudill is a distinguished leader in wilderness education, serving as the Director and Lead Instructor of Nature Reliance School. Renowned for his best-selling books on backcountry skills and recognized as a certified master naturalist, Caudill offers comprehensive online and in-person courses that are highly regarded nationwide. These courses serve a diverse audience, including corporate entities, government agencies, and the public.

Caudill's expertise in backcountry survival and tracking has established him as a highly sought-after educator for first responders at all levels, significantly enhancing their skills in these critical areas. His influence extends to academia, where he has facilitated courses in survival, tracking, and wilderness navigation for students from 14 universities across the Southeast. But it's not just about education. He also collaborates with various conservation and stewardship organizations, using his skills to further their missions and broadening his impact. This aspect of his work is not just inspiring, it's a call to action for all who support the preservation of our natural world.

Caudill's media presence is extensive and varied, featuring prominently on major networks such as the Discovery Channel and History Channel, where he has contributed as a consultant. His reach and recognition have been further amplified through appearances on prominent platforms such as America's Most Wanted, Fox News Live, CNN, and Newsnation. His expertise has also been showcased on Public Education Television through shows like Kentucky Afield, Kentucky Life, Tim Farmer's Country Kitchen, and various regional and local news programs. These engagements have positioned him as a regular figure in national and regional news segments, where he shares his invaluable insights on safety, survival, and tracking skills. This broad spectrum of media appearances highlights his depth of knowledge and skill and solidifies his status as a leading authority in wilderness education and survival training.

 

 

 

Owner KY Handcrafted , Volunteer Fire Fighter, Former Army Reservist

Tracy Trimble grew up near Cave Run Lake which is located in the Daniel Boone National Forest of Central Kentucky and the Appalachian Foothills one of the oldest mountain ranges that exists on Earth. With little to do in rural Kentucky Counties, outside of sports, many days and nights were spent camping, hiking, and horseback riding in the woods. It was a common practice for a group of kids in the area to spend the day exploring the woods, cliffs and trails and then camp for the night. Family vacations were centered on camping in the area as well. Today, Tracy spends his time in the outdoors hiking, camping, kayaking, horse riding, squirrel and turkey hunting when not teaching and training with Nature Reliance School. Tracy still spends over 30 nights per year in the outdoors either on his own or teaching/training with NRS.

Tracy spent six years in the Army Reserve where he spent equal time learning various positions/tasks on the M1 Abrams Tank and as a Drill Sergeant. During his service he developed map/compass and land navigation skills and as such Tracy often leads land navigation classes including field exercises/challenges. He has been training and assisting Craig since the start of NRS. He continues training and studying everything from modern combat tactics and tracking to wilderness and primitive skills to flint knapping and leather working. He is an alumni of Iron Sight Defense (Kentucky), Tyr Group (Louisiana) and Tactical Response (Tennessee) and has trained with Doug Meyer in primitive skills (North Carolina).

 

Medicinal/edible plants instructor Social media maven. :)

Jennifer, the better half to Craig Caudill, wears many hats for Nature Reliance School. She is currently the social media maven for NRS. She is the one posting most of the wonderful things you see on our Facebook, Instagram and Youtube communities. She is also the camera lady and editor for Outdoor Core online content and other video support. She also teaches all of our edible/medicinal plants classes, whether it be dropping in on our weekend survival class or taking the presentations to public schools and libraries.

She has a BS in Education K-8 from Eastern Kentucky University. She has had a lifelong passion for artwork and has taught art in several area schools during her career. She is now leading the charge for the NRS programs to combat "Nature Deficit Disorder" for youth. Jennifer homeschooled both of her children for their entire K-12 careers.  She is now focusing her attention on developing the youth to nature programs for NRS. These program have been taught in 5 different school systems.  These programs are well on their way to helping school administrations meet their core objectives for national rank testing, and helping kids learn and appreciate more about their natural world.

 

 

Primitive Arts Worldwide Instructor

Doug is a good friend to NRS and has taught and mentored us in many ways beyond what is taught in his classes. Doug has been studying skills his whole life but became serious 27 years ago when he met Steve Watts and began studying with him. He learned flintknapping from Dr Errett Callahan and was his teaching assistant for 6 years. He learned tracking from Charles Worsham and has been doing skills ever since.