Southeast Wilderness Survival
Fire Crafting
In a wilderness survival situation fire is going to be one of your very best allies. Fire will; illuminate the darkness, warm your cold body, cook your food, purify your water, sterilize tools, ward off potential threats, keep annoying (and potentially hazardous) insects at bay, and signal for help. In the darkness of a forest night it will also boost morale and help you maintain the positive mental attitude which is key to survival. Because it plays so many rolls, and crosses lines through multiple areas of the hierarchy of needs of survival, the ability to make fire at will is a very important skill to master.
In a wilderness survival situation fire is going to be one of your very best allies. Fire will; illuminate the darkness, warm your cold body, cook your food, purify your water, sterilize tools, ward off potential threats, keep annoying (and potentially hazardous) insects at bay, and signal for help. In the darkness of a forest night it will also boost morale and help you maintain the positive mental attitude which is key to survival. Because it plays so many rolls, and crosses lines through multiple areas of the hierarchy of needs of survival, the ability to make fire at will is a very important skill to master.
In simplest terms, to produce flames three elements are required; fuel, heat, and oxygen. That is to say you need something that will burn in it's current state, a way of igniting it, and as long as you can breath in the environment you're good to go on the oxygen. However nature does not always occur in simplest terms.The often wet, and nearly always humid, environment of the East Appalachian Temperate Rain Forest can be one of the hardest environments in which to start fire.
