Good point Vince,
A lot depends on where you're at, whether you're going to plant/harvest or forage/hunt, etc. I'd say, that if you're talking about living off the land "Native style" you'd need considerably more room... after all, most of the Native Americans were more or less nomadic, even though they had a "home range", the distance between Summer and Winter camps was often tens to hundreds of miles apart (in the Midwest anyway). In case anybody's interested, the general rule of thumb is "leave two to three plants for every one you harvest/take", but that doesn't take into account that there may be somebody in front of/behind you harvesting "Nature's bounty" as well. I try to stay off public lands (it's probably illegal to harvest there anyway, State/Federal lands are mostly OFF LIMITS, check with the rangers first), and go where I have some idea of the use/traffic that the land's getting besides me. Here in Illinois, I don't think a family of four could get by on less than about a hundred acres if they weren't farming, and if they were farming, it would still be strictly subsistance. Being a half...hearted farm boy from the sticks, I'm fairly confident of my assessment, take it or leave it <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Troy