Toronto ? It began with a walk in the woods to find the makings of a simple bow and arrow for his children. About 20 years later, Gary Weisenberger can walk in the woods and make everything from clothing to medicine.

“For thousands of years we used natural materials for everything,” said Weisenberger, a freelance native plant specialist from Toronto. “We’ve only been ‘modern’ for a few hundred years.”

While he’s mastered edible and medicinal plants, Weisenberger’s best known for his ability to turn Kansas plants into baskets that are both functional and artistic.

Inside his home are a wide variety of baskets made from local materials.

There are several baskets of tree bark, from a cup to a gallon in size. Weisenberger explained that he sliced away sections of red mulberry and American elm. The containers were then laced up with strips of bark.

Though his woven baskets are more complex, their materials are readily at hand.

After driving the few miles from his home to Cross Timbers State Park, Weisenberger walked to the edge of a camp site and immediately found the makings of a basket waiting to be woven.

Weisenberger pulled up a four-foot section of buckbrush runner, a vine-like growth that helps the common briar spread through the woods.

“If you can wrap it around your finger and it doesn’t break, you’ve got basket material,” Weisenberger said, curling the runner around his forefinger.

Yucca cactus, very common on the high plains of Kansas, is fine for weaving, food and other uses. “If you had yucca and buffalo, you’d be set,” Weisenberger said. “You could make about anything you needed between the two.”

Though he has no such do-all plant in Woodson County, Weisenberger is never at a shortage for useful materials.

Driving through the park, he stopped suddenly beside an overgrown field, and walked into a patch of dogbane.

After explaining how to tell the plant from its close relative, milkweed, Weisenberger cut a stalk near ground level, split it lengthwise between his fingers twice, then started peeling off two-inch long sections of stem, leaving only a thin layer of outer bark.

Alternating directions as he twisted the outer layer with his fingers, within seconds he had a foot-long section of stout cord.

“Primitive people used to make fish nets and rabbit nets 300 feet long from this stuff. It’s strong, I’ve seen it support the weight of a man,” he said, giving the cord several hard tugs. “It’s still just as functional. You never know when we might need these skills again.”