Wilderness Survival MB- Low Impact Shelters

[Bruce Tolley]

I have been a MB counsellor for the camping MB and backpacking MB and am looking at expanding into the Wilderness Survival MB.

Does anyone have ideas on low impact survival shelters that might comply with requirement 8?

Apart from a debris shelter, most of the shelters I know have relatively high impact and are more bush craft or old school Boy Scout than LNT.

The exact wording of requirement
1. Improvise a natural shelter. For the purpose of this demonstration, use techniques that have little negative impact on the environment. Spend a night in your shelter.

The MB book itself is rather sketchy and shows shelters that either some negative impact or look like they would take too long to build in an emergency situation. I am interpreting "natural shelter" to mean use natural materials. I would be looking to build these with the Scouts in the Coastal Mtns Range of California or perhaps in the Sierra Nevada come this summer.

Thanks
YIS

[M B]

I agree, its generally a pretty bad thing to do to construct the shelters. There is nothing LNT about it. Do it on a well used scout reservation where it doesnt matter.

Pretty much a joke too I have to say. Without use of a tarp, or garbage bags, there is nothing water resistant either about the shelters the scouts build. Its a short excercise in learning, but not a degree in survival.

[Erik Basil]

In terms of whether it's a realistic skill to teach, there are two levels to this: the first is the development of mental fortitude and breadth to accomodate such measures and it's the second that's related to efficacy of the shelter.

In terms of efficacy, when I earned mine in cold weather, it worked great.

In terms of LNT: well, you can try to teach it using only deadfall, but this is gonna be tough in the Sierra Nevada (at least above the chaparral). Once you're teaching how to construct using green wood, it's past LNT obviously. In the emergency, LNT is anathema: the point is to leave trace and be discovered — you have to remind the boys about lost scouts who've built excellent shelters and been "missed" by searchers who walk on by — and the general consensus is that we value the lost person more than the habitat.

I think the navigation of this issue is that you teach how to build the structures, but actually use only LNT-like principals (ie don't do anything you can't undo/repair) and actually incorporate the LNT concepts so the dudes know why they're not cutting saplings for the MB project.

[Bruce Tolley]

Good feedback. Thanks.

I think I will have to reach out to the local Scout reservation. I cannot see pulling this off without causing some impact. I also will talk to some of the High Adventure coordinators in the council about whether "natural materials" excludes using what might be already in your rucksack. While MB counselors are not supposed to add to or subtract from the requirements, it seems a little silly to not use what is on your person or in your kit to build the shelter.

All the examples in the MB book focus on the frame. I was taught to start with the "mattress" and frankly the last time I had to establish an unplanned bivouac, by the time I found a good location, gathered enough wood to last the night, and built some basic ground insulation, I was out of daylight.

[Justin Baker]

First of all, get it out of your head that building a natural shelter has to be a destructive act. It doesn't have to be that way.

You can build a frame using sticks/logs off the ground and pile a ton of dead leaves on top. Just put A LOT of leaves. Take it down and scatter the leaves when done, no impact.

In a coniferous forest, you can often find a blown over tree that still has green boughs. They are easier to find in early summer. That will allow you to get some nice boughs without hurting a living tree. I don't see any impact with doing this.

Others things you can use as thatching material:
bunches of dry grass
large pieces of bark off large, dead trees
dead cattails or bullrush
piles of dead pine needles

Here is a picture of a natural shelter I built when it was going to rain and I didn't have a good shelter to keep me dry. All of the branches came off a large and recently blown over redwood tree. I took me a couple of hours, just a last minute emergency thing.
The picture was the next morning. http://img72.imageshack.us/img72/5136/bigsurtrip152.jpg

Also, here is a video of Ray Mears building a very quick and easy shelter. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dabG6gMWQSY&feature=relmfu

[Gerry Volpe]

"Apart from a debris shelter, most of the shelters I know have relatively high impact and are more bush craft or old school Boy Scout than LNT."

I think you are entirely correct here. I would focus on debris huts and debris variations such as debris covered lean-tos and debris filled natural shelters. You can get everything from simply waterproof to winter conditions insulation depending on your resources, site, time, etc. I would consider teaching the concept with hay or bags of leaves if you don't have easy acess to somewhere with lots of nice dry material, a small scale example works well also. I know that you have requirements to follow and when the boys build their own to meet those they can use all found LNT materials etc. I would also teach the theory of non LNT shelters that might be best suited to your environment. This way they can learn about best practices in addition to building with what is at hand. If they are anything like the shelters my friends and I built for our badges they will probably serve as not much more than a psychological blanket for the overnight.

[Roger Caffin]

I suggest that the requirements for a natural shelter should be dropped. The old 'bushcraft' ideas which may have been appropriate in Davy Crockett days are now far to destructive, especially with the number of people out there now.

On the other hand, here in NSW we make great use of rock overhangs. People have even been known to use a large wombat hole in an emergency. OK – it was snowing at the time!

Dead branches and mulch – OK, if entirely fallen and dad.

But no more chopping down trees or wrecking the environment thanks.

Cheers

[Bruce Tolley]

To Justin
Your said: "First of all, get it out of your head that building a natural shelter has to be a destructive act. It doesn't have to be that way."
Yes, I know and that is why I started the thread to get some better ideas than those that were in my own head.

I did post this on the Scouting forum to start my preparations to lead a merit badge where 11 and 12 years olds will learn and practice the skills. The context is that to pull this off I would need to conduct an field lesson on how to build the shelter and then segue on the same weekend or another weekend into a session where 5 or more scouts each build their own shelter. We might be hard pressed to find "naturally" enough downed wood of the proper size to build 5 to 6 a frames.

To Roger
Yes I know the requirement is schizophrenic in its commitment to modern LNT principles. Scouting is supposed to be LNT in all its activities. I will look into how other merit badge counsellors work with it. I am leaning toward doing this on a Scout reservation and, if there is not enough downed wood, using some pre-prepared "natural" materials as suggested above.

[Tad Englund]

Justin, the best low-impact LNT wilderness shelters I've come up with are Igloo's,Snow caves and Snow trenches.

I'm a wilderness Survival MB counselor also and making these kind of shelters meet the BSA requirements and your issues and the boys really enjoy the overnight experience (sleeping in the snow).

Our troop does a winter igloo trip at least every other year so all the boys have a chance for this requirement.

[Luke Schmidt]

I'm guessing the boys will want/need to do a service project of some kind. Why not combine the two? Have them rake up a bunch of leaves for people that need it, put them in bags and haul them off to the scout reservation to us in making shelters. They'll be gathering leaves anyway that is probably just as efficient as doing it out in the woods and its a way to help people at the same time.

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