Bark, moss and spruce gum

What to look for

• Birch bark, the loose papery curls on the trunk and on deadfall
• Dead fir and spruce twigs on the lower trunk, dry even in rain
• Spruce gum, the hard amber beads on a wounded trunk
• Sphagnum moss in the bog, soft and thick
• Fir boughs for bedding, cut from several trees so no one tree is stripped
• Inner bark of dead spruce roots for rough cordage

How

1. Take birch bark from deadfall and from the loose curls. A cut into living birch bark leaves a black scar for life and can kill the tree.
2. Shred a handful of bark between your palms. The oil in it lights wet and burns long enough to catch damp kindling.
3. Snap the dead dry twigs off the underside of a fir. They stay dry under the canopy in rain.
4. Scrape spruce gum with a knife and warm it in your hand or in a tin. It patches a canoe seam, a boot, a tarp hole or a split handle.
5. Wring sphagnum out and use it as a liner in a boot, a pot scrub, or a dressing pad under a bandage.
6. Lay fir boughs butt down and shingled, tips overlapping, four or five deep. That is your insulation from the ground and it is worth two blankets.
7. Split a spruce root, peel the bark off, and you have a lashing that holds a shelter frame together.

Do and don't

Watch for

Notes

Birch bark, dead fir twigs and a boughed bed are three of the best things the Newfoundland woods give away.

Almost everything on this page comes from what is already dead or already down. Learn the deadfall first.