Wilderness Survival For my eight grade project I decided to base it off of something that I knew little about but had great interest in, Wilderness Survival. Before this I had very little interest in any sort of wilderness, and also knew very little about it. Through the process of this project not only did I learn about wilderness survival I experienced it and I developed a skill in it as well. During the process of my eighth grade project I learned about navigation, potential hazards, shelter, water, fire, food, and first aid. I learned about most of these topics by hands on experiences making it an excellent way of learning it and also remembering it. Navigation The first thing you want to do if you are in a survival situation is have a plan. You must know what you are trying to do and do it, but before you want to follow on through with your plan you should make sure it is a good plan and know what it is going to take to get there. If you have a map and compass use them, for they will help you a great amount with navigation. If you don t have a map or compass, then you can use the skies to help you navigate. The best time to use the skies is at night, because of all the stars that can help you find out directions. It is very important to know where you are going, and not get lost in the process of going there. Another important thing is when you have a plan stick to it don t get off track because this will make you lose time that you cant afford losing in your survival situation. Potential Hazards
Now that you have an idea about navigation and have a plan, you must also be aware of the potential hazards that are surrounding you. One of the main potential hazards has to do with dangerous animals such as snakes, water creatures, and pests. There are no simple rules to find out whether a snake is poisonous or not, but there are very simple rules to avoid them. The only reason most snakes are dangerous is because of their bites and if you avoid them you should have no problem with them. Most snake bites that happen occur when the person is not aware of the snake and they end up getting too close or even stepping on the snake, and this makes the snake startled and defensive causing the snake to instinctively bite at its threat. To avoid snake bites you should not sleep next to brush and tall grass because this provides a home for a snake. You should also not put your hands under rocks, logs, or dark places and if you must, be very cautious about it. Overall, just be aware of you surroundings and try to avoid the snakes. There are several species of venomous fish and invertebrates, all of which live in water. These fish and invertebrates are capable of injecting venomous poison through many different parts of their bodies that cause intense pain and are potentially fatal. Ferocious fish such as piranhas, barracudas, moray eel, and sea bass are all fish you should avoid because of their behaviors that can put you in a injury that you can t afford in a survival situation. Many fish such as Rabbit fish, Scorpion fish, Zebra fish, Siganus fish, Stone fish, Tang fish, Toad fish, and Weever fish all have fins with venomous spines that cause extremely painful and fatal wounds. Are all of these found in North America? You can recognize insects, except centipedes and millipedes, by their six legs while arachnids have eight legs. Small creators such as scorpions, spiders, bees, wasps, and ticks all become pests when they bite, sting, or irritate you. Although their bites and stings can
be very painful bees, wasps, and hornets rarely kill a survivor. There are very few spiders that can actually bite and kill a person, and the effect of tick born disease is very slow acting. Avoiding these creatures is the best defense, and also be sure to check shoes, clothes, shelters, or any equipment that could make a good home for one of these pest. Shelter When you are in a survival situation it is important to know that a shelter is an extremely important part of your survival, and that without it your chances of staying alive are very low. The first step to building a good shelter is finding a good location. A couple things you should look for is a place that is free of any pests or poisonous plants, a dry place, a place with level ground, and a place comfortable enough to sleep. It would also be a good idea, depending on your survival situation, to build it where there are trees so that you shelter won t have to endure the wind if there is any. Since you are in a survival situation you most likely won t have any made resources that will be a help to you for a shelter. So you are going to build a shelter only using your natural resources. The most known and recommended shelter for survival situations is the debris hut. The debris hut is a very simple shelter to build if you are in a place where there are trees, and any sort of debris. The first step to building a debris hut is getting a stick that is taller than you when you put your hands above your head. When you find that stick the next step is to find something to support it, such as a tree branch, or two Y shaped sticks, but no matter what you use the debris hut cant be any higher than your waist. After this one end of your stick
should be resting on the ground and the other end should be supported by whatever you decided to use. Now you want to get plenty of sticks to cover the sides of the hut, and also be sure to put them close enough so that they can support a thick layer of debris. Finally you want to pile you shelter with a thick layer of whatever debris is available, so that you can stay warm and dry. A shelter is what is going to keep you safe and comfortable during harsh weather, and without one your chances of survival are very low. It is important to try to make a shelter as soon as you can. Drinking Water Approximately 60% of our bodies are composed of water, and about 70% of our brain, 82% of our blood, 90% of our lungs is composed of water as well. During an average day a person will need to drink 2 to 3 quarts of water a day, and during a very active day with extreme weather that same person would need to drink 4 to 6 quarts of water a day. Finding water should not be hard if you know how to look for the signs of it all around you. Signs you should look out for are bees, ants, mosquitoes, flies, frogs, and salamanders are all good signs of water. Even if you do find water, more than likely that water is not going to be safe enough to drink. What you will have to end up doing if you want to get safe drinking water is purify it. Having found a water source is a huge advantage to your survival situation, but there still is one more step to being able to actually drink the water and that is purifying it. There are many different ways to get purified water, but the easiest and best way to do it in a survival situation is by getting it from ground water. Ground water is found under the
earth s surface, and the water that is there is naturally filtered as it moves through the ground. To access the ground water you need to dig a hole about 3 feet wide and the hole needs to be about 10 feet from the water source. You should dig down until water begins to seep in, then you want to let the water settle so that all the dirt can settle at the bottom and then the water should be safe to drink. Water is very necessary in any circumstances, especially in a survival situation. You should always be on the constant lookout for water, and purifying it should not be too difficult. Without water you won t live very long, so it is important to get it as soon as you can. Fire Fire is one of the biggest assets in a survival situation. It can help with protection, warmth, and light. Even though fire can be very beneficial, it still can be very hard to make if you do not have any man made heat sources. There are three elements to making a fire and they are oxygen, fuel, and heat. You can provide oxygen by simply blowing on the fire, or by creating your fire structure so that it can get oxygen. Fuel can be provided with wood, leaves, brush, or anything flammable. Heat is required to start a fire, and you can provide heat with a man made heat sources, or with friction. Even if you do have man made heat sources, at one point they will run out so you should consider other sources of heat to start your fire. Flint and steel are very effective for starting fires, and if you do happen to have one, then you are in luck. Even if you don t there is another effective way to start a fire. This
way uses the concept of friction to create a coal that you can turn into a fire, and this concept is called the bow drill. There are four different parts to the bow drill; there is the handle, the bow, the spindle, and the fireboard. The purpose of the handle is to keep the spindle in place while it is being span by the bow. To make the handle the first step is getting a piece of wood that fits in your hand, and with that piece create a notch that can fit the spindle. The bow should be about arms length, and slightly curved. Then you want to create notches at each end of the bow so that it can fit the string, cordage, shoelace, or whatever you are using to complete your bow. The spindle is a smooth straight cylinder that is made of a dry wood. The spindle should be about as long as it is from you thumb to your pinky, and as wide as your thumb. Now you want to make both sides of your spindle at a point. The fireboard should be created of the same would the spindle was made of. Your fire board should be a piece of flat wood that is thick and long enough to your comfort. Then you want to create a socket along the long side of the fireboard, but not to close to the edge or this wont work. Once you have all the pieces you want to put the spindle in the bow, and then put the top end of the spindle in the handle and the bottom end of the spindle in the notch of the fireboard. Then you want to draw your fireboard back and forth, and if your spindle isn t turning your string is to loose and you will have to retie it. You might want to take some time and make some adjustments so that if fits you better, and after this your bow drill will be complete. Fire is the best thing you can have in a survival situation, but it also can be the hardest to make. If you do get a fire it will help you with warmth, light, and protection so you should try as hard as you can to make one.
Food In a survival situation you should be on a constant lookout for food, because everything you need to stay alive can be provided by the land in which you are on. There are two main ways to get food in the wilderness, foraging and hunting. The easiest and fastest way to get food is by foraging for wild plants. There are very many different species of plants, and a lot of them can serve you as food. Food is very important to the human body, and without it you will die. Even though there are plants that can serve you as food, there are also many other plants that can be very dangerous. If you are going to eat any wild plants, you should know what you are eating. Nature can provide you with a great amount of food that will help you survive, but not if you don t eat the right plants. Therefore eating wild plants can be the fastest and easiest, but it can also be the most dangerous if you do not know what plants you are handling with. If you are in a survival situation and would like to catch wild game, snares and traps would be a good alternative. There are very many different kinds of snares and traps, and they can be effective it used and constructed correctly. To make an effective snare or trap you should know what you are trying to catch, be capable of constructing it, and not alarm the prey. To increase your chance in catching wild game, you should set is where there are signs of its existence such as trails, tracks, droppings, eaten vegetation, and watering areas. Snares and traps are one way of hunting, but there is also another way of hunting. Using weapons to hunt wild game is another effective way to catch wild game. There are
many kinds of weapons you can make from the wilderness, such as a bow, spear, club, throwing stick, or even just a rock. The weapon can be whatever you want it to be, and it should make it easier to get what you are going after. Food is very necessary to a human in any circumstances, so when you are in a survival situation you must be on the constant lookout for it. In the wilderness food is all around you, you just need to know how to look for it and how to get it. If you can do this you will have a better chance of surviving. First Aid The best thing you can do in a survival situation is to be as careful as possible in everything you do. That way you won t have a problem of an injury in the first place, but sometimes injuries do happen and when they do you should know what to do. There are very many different injuries that can happen during your survival situation, but the most common are open wounds, rashes, diarrhea, and fractured, sprained, or bruised parts of the body. Open wounds are a serious injury for the reason that if you don t care for the wound correctly it can lead to infection. Infection can only get worse and worse, if it is not treated correctly. To treat an infection you should leave the wound open and clean it thoroughly with water often. Rashes can spread quickly and can be very disturbing. To treat a rash you should keep it moist if it s dry, or keep it dry if it s moist, and above all do not scratch it! Your body should be able to take care of the rash if you do what was said.
Diarrhea is a very common occurrence in a survival situation. Diarrhea can lead to dehydration and other sicknesses. Common causes are changes in water and food, and eating spoiled or dirty food. There are no real treatments in the wilderness, but the best thing you can do is it and drink clean. Fractured, sprained, or bruised parts of the body often occur in a survival situation, and there are four basic steps to follow for treating one of these injuries. The first thing you should do is rest; resting will slow down your blood flow making it easier to heal and less painful. If possible you should put ice on or cold water on the injury, this will help it a lot. Next you should put compression on the injury, that way it will stop bleeding if there is any. Lastly you want to work on the elevation of the injury. Elevate the injury above the level of the heart, and this will reduce the bleeding and swelling by decreasing the blood floe to the injury. Avoiding injuries is the best thing you can do in any situation, but it can also be the hardest. Injuries do often happen and when they do you should be able to treat that injury, being able to do this will help you go far in you survival. Conclusion In the end my project wasn t just a project anymore; it was something a lot bigger than just that it turned into a new life experience, a new adventure, a new hobby, and above all a new life lesson. I learned that no matter how many videos you watch or books you read about wilderness survival, you actually have to be in the wilderness practicing survival skills in order to actually know about wilderness survival. I think this is true with many things in life, and having this new life experience I know it will help me be successful in life.
Overall not only did I learn and experience about wilderness survival, but I also learned a valuable new life experience. I went from knowing nothing about wilderness survival, to learning to much that I can remember. This year has been a great year, and this project is the reason this year was like this.? was memorable.