# 6 Trees Every Survivalist Should Know & Why



## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

http://willowhavenoutdoor.com/featu...es/5-trees-every-survivalist-should-know-why/

Now is a good time to go out and flag the following six trees before the leaves drop (except the pine). Revisit them in the winter and learn how to ID them by the bark alone. Then again in the Spring with the buds and new leaves.

*White birch (paper birch)*

White birch is easy to identify with its distinctive, white, papery bark. The sycamore tree also has white bark, but it does not sluff off in thin, paper-like furls like the white birch. The sycamore also has large hand-shaped leaves versus the white birch's smaller, oval-shaped leaves with a pointed tip. The birch leaf is also irregularly toothed. These grow almost exclusively in northern climates.
*
White birch survival uses:*

Sweet drinkable sap that does not need purification
Containers can be fashioned from the bark (and even canoes - hence the name "canoe birch")
It's papery bark makes some of the finest fire starting tender on the planet, which will light even when damp because of its resinous quality
A fine tea can be made from the small twigs at the end of a branch or by shaving the bark from new growth. Toss a palmful of these elements into boiling water for a fresh, wintergreen-flavored tea
The tinder fungus (chaga) grows almost exclusively on the white birch tree. The fungus is one of the only natural materials I know of that will take the spark from flint and steel. A piece of tinder fungus along with flint and pyrite to create sparks were even found on Otzi, the "iceman" who was uncovered in the Austrian Alps several years ago.
Pine tar can be extracted from the bark of the white birch by heating it over a fire. Pine tar makes an excellent natural adhesive which natives used for all kinds of purposes including securing stone points on arrows.

*American Basswood (Linden)*

The American basswood (also called American linden) is a very common tree - especially in the Eastern U.S. It prefers moist soil and is often found by creeks, streams and ponds. It likes to grow several shoots from the base so it's not uncommon to see the basswood growing in what appears to be clumps. Basswood trees have large, heart-shaped, coarsely toothed leaves and dark red young leaf buds. One of the most distinctive features of the basswood is what I call the "tongue." A tongue-shaped leaf grows at the base of the regular heart-shaped leaves on mature trees. Hard, little, nut-like fruits dangle from the center of this "tongue" leaf throughout the summer.

Basswood survival uses:

Delicious edible leaves - especially in spring
"Bass" comes from the word "bast," which is an old word for rope. The inner fibers from the Basswood make some of the best natural cordage on the planet. In my last course, 2 adult men could not break a 1/2″ thick strip of basswood bark.
Basswood is my favorite wood to use in fire by friction sets. It is soft and makes a perfect friction fire wood for bow drill spindles and hearthboards and for hand drill hearthboards.
Basswood is preferred by most wood carvers and chainsaw carvers because of how easy it is to work and carve
Inner bark layer is edible and can be scraped off with the edge of your knife. It has a very sweet flavor.

*White Pine*

The leaves of the White Pine grow in batches of 5 needles. Every fall the white pine loses all of its needles except those that grew that year. Pine is an evergreen. Evergreen trees keep some green leaves year-round, unlike deciduous trees, and have needle-like leaves. They also produce cones (pine cones) instead of flowers.

White pine survival uses:

Resin can be used a fire extender when mixed with tinder material
Resin can be heated and mixed with crushed charcoal to make a natural epoxy
Resin-rich joints and stump pieces make incredible fire kindling
Make pine-needle tea from the green pine needles - very rich in Vitamin C
Inner bark layers are edible
Harvest pine nuts from the pine cones
Pine needles make excellent fire tinder
Pine needles make excellent natural insulation material for debris huts and survival shelters
Green pine boughs are perfect for lean-to shelter roofs
Green pine boughs are great for making a 'pine bough bed' to protect from the cold ground or snow
The lower, dry, dead branches of the pine tree (squaw wood) is often some of the driest fire kindling available. It is exposed to the wind and also protected from the elements by the year-round needle canopy above, I've also used these branches for making bow drill fire friction sets.
Very effective candles and lamps can be made from pine resin
Pine resin can be used to waterproof seams in clothing or crude containers
The very pliable surface layer roots make excellent (and strong) natural cordage. Use as a whole or split into smaller pieces.

*White Oak (and all oaks in general)*

White oaks have rounded leaf lobes instead of pointed ones like red oaks. Contrary to popular belief, acorns are edible. I like white oak acorns better because it seems they are less bitter and it takes less effort to leach out the tannic acid (which causes this bitterness) to become more palatable. An abundance of acorns in mid-summer makes the oak family almost impossible to misidentify. Oaks are some of the largest trees in the forest. I have many white oaks at Willow Haven that are over 100 feet tall and easily 3-4 feet in diameter.

White oak survival uses:

Acorns (after leaching out the tannic acid) can be ground and used as flour to make acorn bread
Tannic acid (which can be extracted by boiling or leaching acorns and/or inner oak bark and twigs) is anti-bacterial. I've used it as an antiseptic wash before and have heard of it being used to quell diarrhea.
Acorns can be used a trap bait for squirrel and other small game animals
Can tan leather using the tannic acid found in bark, acorns and wood
Oak is a very hard wood that is good for ax handles, digging sticks and shelter frameworks
When dried, the white oak flowers make suitable tinder bundles and can be found in great abundance certain times of the year

*Sugar Maple (and pretty much all maples)*

The sugar maple is one of my favorite trees and probably one of the most popular in the Eastern woodlands. Its beauty is on full display when the leaves change each fall into bursts of red, orange and yellow. The leaves usually have five lobes, and the tips are pointed. Young maples have smooth silvery bark. The unmistakable, "winged helicopter" seeds are a tell-tale maple tree indicator. Sugar maple is the source for maple syrup. This tree is preferred because its sap has high sugar content. It takes 40 gallons of sugar maple sap to make 1 gallon of maple syrup.

Sugar maple survival uses:

In later winter/early spring when the sap is running, the sugar maple is an excellent source of drinkable water (sap) that needs no purification. Maple Sap is nature's version of an energy drink - rich in sugar and nutrients. I've filled a 1-liter canteen in as few as 15 minutes before. Maples don't have fully developed (or any) leaves during this time of year - hence the important of 4 season identification.
The seeds inside the little helicopters are edible, just like edamame. I just boil them and lightly salt. They can also be fried or added to stews. Remove the outer helicopter.
I almost always use maple branches for wilderness cooking. Whether it's a spit roast, a hot dog stick or utensils, I can always find a maple branch suitable for the task. Maple branches naturally have a lot of forks, which is great for pot holders and other wilderness kitchen uses. I also use the leaves to wrap fish or other small game animals when cooling in an earth oven.
Young maple leaves are also edible. Toss them into a salad or boil them down with other spring greens. They get bitter and rough as they mature.

*Willow Tree*

There are tons of different willow varieties. Every willow I've seen has a similar leaf shape. The leaves are narrow, lance-shaped and grow in great numbers along the branches. Willows must be in moist areas to survive. If you've found a willow, then there is a water source nearby.

Willow survival uses:

Willow bark contains a chemical called salicin, which is similar to aspirin. I can personally attest to its effectiveness in relieving headaches and inflammation. Just chew on a few small green twigs and swallow the juices.
In spring and summer, willow bark will peel away from the wood and makes excellent cordage that can be used for a huge variety of tasks.
Young willow branches and saplings are very flexible and can be used to weave a variety of different baskets and funnel traps.
I've used dried willow wood on many occasions for friction fire sets - both hand drill and bow drill
Willow saplings make excellent frog and fish gigs. Just split the base into 4 equal sections, press a rock to the bottom of the splits and sharpen the tines.

*Photos of all the above mentioned trees can be found by following the link at the top of the page.*


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Willow Tree wood is preferred for making the charcoal used in the manufacture of black powder.


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Great post especially the willow! I had planned a post on willow but will add part of it here.

The leaves are also used for tired aching feet. Steep the leaves in a pan with hot water a few minutes. When cool enough put your tired feet in the pan for a soak. The pain relieving and anti-inflammatory qualities are amazing.

Usually in the herbalist world bark refers to inner bark. With the willow it means outer bark. It can be tinctured. When the tincture is done drain the bark then put in a pot. Add a quart of water and bring to a boil reducing by half. Add this decoction to the tincture.

Some of the willows medicine can be extracted by alcohol other parts by water (boiling). This mix is usually taken by a teaspoon 5 times a day.


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## TheLazyL (Jun 5, 2012)

Great post!

I never thought of tress for anything but firewood.


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## lovetogrow (Jan 25, 2011)

Excellent post! Birch, maple and Cedar have been my go to's for decades :2thumb:

http://www.bellybytes.com/herbs/cedar.html#.UmFHzyjnu20


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## camo2460 (Feb 10, 2013)

UncleJoe said:


> http://willowhavenoutdoor.com/featu...es/5-trees-every-survivalist-should-know-why/
> 
> Now is a good time to go out and flag the following six trees before the leaves drop (except the pine). Revisit them in the winter and learn how to ID them by the bark alone. Then again in the Spring with the buds and new leaves.
> 
> ...


Very nice post, everyone should at least know, if not practice the old ways. While we have come a long way, and many things are more efficient, knowing how to do something in a different way may be what pulls your bacon out of the fire.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

White Pine ... Mother Natures Band-Aid tree. 

Make pine-needle tea from the green pine needles – very rich in Vitamin C (and it taste rather nice also.)

Great Thread!


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## lotsoflead (Jul 25, 2010)

the bad thing about the willow tree is that if you have aseptic system near it, the roots will ruin your fields.


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## weedygarden (Apr 27, 2011)

*Great post!*

This is such good basic information. Thank you, Uncle Joe!

I have heard that you can make syrup from Birch also, similar to maple syrup. I have never tried it though.


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Several trees can be tapped for syrup. Here's a short list on Mother Earth News.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/real...rthwest-trees-zmaz79jfzraw.aspx#axzz2i7T93Slk

Here's an article on birch syrup.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/09/28/226856804/meet-maple-syrup-s-long-lost-cousins

A friend bought a bol. It had 100 blackwalnut trees on it. He struck gold... Nuts, cooking oil from nuts and syrup! He had no idea when he bought the property. I had to tell him what he had!


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Here is one more tree that is good to know.

Sweet Gum Tree – Liquidambar styraciflua is an antiviral and has other uses. In the past the resin and inner bark were used for an astringent tea to treat diarrhea, fevers and excessive menstrual bleeding.

The inner bark contains shikimic acid. This is important because the pharmaceutical industry uses shikimic acid from the Chinese “star anise” (Illicium verum) as a base material for production of oseltamivir or Tamiflu.

If you have sweet gum you have Tamiflu!

Boiling the inner bark or branches will make an antiviral tea but it works better with other antivirals such as Elderberry. It's 2 cups of inner bark boiled in 1 gallon of water for 30min for tea. The “green balls” have a higher concentration of shikimic acid than the bark.

It’s antiseptic too. It helps heal wounds, relieves itching and promotes healing in general. Bark decocted in milk stops diarrhea. Chewing resin will ease a sore throat. A salve from resin helps persistent skin rashes.

This is Tommie Bass’s cough syrup recipe - equal parts
boneset
wild cherry bark
sweet gum bark
mullein leaf
rabbit tobacco


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## lovetogrow (Jan 25, 2011)

Man Cotton I wish I had one of those sweet gum trees in my back yard! But you never know where the good lord's gonna have you from time to time  What a divine tree! Thanks for the info.

Sweeet how your friend struck gold with those 100 heavenly black walnut trees artydance: 

Very informative thread - thanks UncleJoe!


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## lovetogrow (Jan 25, 2011)

weedygarden said:


> This is such good basic information. Thank you, Uncle Joe!
> 
> I have heard that you can make syrup from Birch also, similar to maple syrup. I have never tried it though.


You can make a syrup from Birch, however a heavier syrup is ambitious - I made a light and it takes a whole lot more ratio to ratio for birch than maple.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Down here we have the mesquite trees. The seed pods can be soaked/boiled and the resulting sweetened water can be rendered down just like for maple syrup. Seed pods can be milled into a pre-sweetened flour to be used just like regular flour or you can eat the pods right from the tree. The trees have huge amounts of pods, even on small trees and produce well even in very dry years. Pods and leaves are eaten by cows and horses(and many other animals). The leaves can also be eaten.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

lotsoflead said:


> the bad thing about the willow tree is that if you have aseptic system near it, the roots will ruin your fields.


I have 2 willows right in the middle of my septic system. I know its really bad and I'll have to deal with that some day. My fault. When I was young, before the internet, there were puddles in my septic field. I planted trees to fix that. I dug up 2 baby willows by the creek and planted them. Boy did they love it and grew really quick and fixed my problem - I can walk and mow without sinking in. Pretty smart of me huh? And someday I'll have to put in a new septic system because of my wise ways.

I also have a white pine over my septic system.

My question is, can I use the pine needles for the tea? Is it safe to chew the bark of the willows? I've always wondered if these trees are okay to use since they are sucking up the nasties from my septic.

If you had a maple next to or over your septic, would you use that sap? I don't.


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## jeff47041 (Jan 5, 2013)

Here are a couple of things I know. Not much but...

White pine has 5 needles - W H I T E 5 letters
Red pine has 3 needles - R E D 3 letters

For maple helicopters, The more ^ shaped they are, the sweeter the sap is that year. So if the helicopter is almost straight, it will take a lot more boiling down to get the correct sweetness of your syrup.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Boxelder is in the maple family and can be tapped.


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

jeff47041 said:


> My question is, can I use the pine needles for the tea? Is it safe to chew the bark of the willows? I've always wondered if these trees are okay to use since they are sucking up the nasties from my septic.
> 
> If you had a maple next to or over your septic, would you use that sap? I don't.


I wouldn't&#8230; Urban foraging&#8230; sort of a pet peeve of mine. Folks like Steve Brill do a good thing teaching others about all the wild edible and medicinal plants around them. Unfortunately he does this in an urban setting. Some of his video's make me cringe. He has no idea what was located on a vacant lot 40 years ago, what chemicals were used.

Example - back in the summer a friend had me come and identify some plants behind her house. The brush was elderberry! Lots of it. She was excited until I pointed out the petroleum "rainbow" sheen on the pools of water in the ditch.

There were lots of edible and medicinal plant along that ditch, lots of Heal All (Prunella vulgaris) and Sumac to spice up her food. She lived in an up scale subdivision. That ditch was full of the chemicals used to maintain all those expensive manicured lawns. I wouldn't use anything growing in that ditch, especially not for medicine. With medicine you're extracting and concentrating chemical compounds from plant material.

If you're using modern chemicals to clean your septic system&#8230; If I were using willow to make internal medications I would find a willow growing in the most natural conditions I could possibly find. imho


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## crabapple (Jan 1, 2012)

A few more trees that I have or will plant at my BOL:
Crabapple, eaten raw or in jelly & pies.
Aspen/Poplar, Tea, soft formative tissue noodles.
Beech- nuts, young leaves,inner bark.
Black Birch tea,young leaves,inner bark, sap syrup.
Black walnut, nuts,dye.
Butter nut,dye.
Hickory, nuts, tool handles.
Wild cherry(choke-black fruit), raw,jelly, Honey bees like to swam the blooms.
PaPaw, fruit.
Slippery Elm, inner bark,tea.
Sassafras,Tea, dried leaves ground into fines to thicken soups.
Hemlock-Tea full of Vitamin C.
Sumac, Sumac Lemonade.
And any kind of fruit tree,shrub,vine or herb plant you think you could use. You need to use these plants now, get use to the process, identification, taste. Find out if it set well with you.
If you are on foot, with just a back pack or less in a new unknown country, you will need the experience that you gained before the Great Fall of Man Kind. PRE is where you learn-POST is where you use these things.


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## Cotton (Oct 12, 2013)

Speaking of sumac. I've been reading about how the spice is used in the near and middle east (2000+ years). I put some sumac pods in the dehydrator this morning. I intend to grind some spice to try. These berries are pretty dry but it's been raining some of late. I didn't think it'd hurt to dry them for a day.

Here is the process... http://www.smartlivingnetwork.com/f...t-foraging-sumac-spice-tea-dinner-and-desert/

http://www.thespicehouse.com/spices/powdered-sumac

http://greekfood.about.com/od/greekspices/p/sumac.htm


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## cantinawest (Nov 9, 2011)

UncleJoe said:


> http://willowhavenoutdoor.com/featu...es/5-trees-every-survivalist-should-know-why/
> 
> *White Oak (and all oaks in general)*
> 
> White oaks have rounded leaf lobes instead of pointed ones like red oaks. Contrary to popular belief, acorns are edible. I like white oak acorns better because it seems they are less bitter and it takes less effort to leach out the tannic acid (which causes this bitterness) to become more palatable. An abundance of acorns in mid-summer makes the oak family almost impossible to misidentify.


I came across this page one day on Instructables, it is on how to make Acorn Coffee. It was quite well explained and illustrated.

http://www.instructables.com/id/ACORN-Coffee/


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

cantinawest, thanks for the acorn info. I might fight with the squirrels here at my place and try it.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

hiwall said:


> cantinawest, thanks for the acorn info. I might fight with the squirrels here at my place and try it.


You may also try the new threads I gave a bump up ...


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

Thanks *Andi. And I remember that Davarm likes those acorn grittle cakes and gave the instructions on an earlier post. I enjoy cooking and often work up my own recipes. I only question my abilities pitted against the many squirrels that reside here! Also the oaks here(Arizona) have very sharp points on the leaves that discourage reaching in there to get the acorns.


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## RedBeard (May 8, 2017)

UncleJoe said:


> *White birch (paper birch)*
> 
> White birch is easy to identify with its distinctive, white, papery bark. The sycamore tree also has white bark, but it does not sluff off in thin, paper-like furls like the white birch. The sycamore also has large hand-shaped leaves versus the white birch's smaller, oval-shaped leaves with a pointed tip. The birch leaf is also irregularly toothed. These grow almost exclusively in northern climates.
> *
> ...


Fresh chaga yesterday! The iceman most likely carried chaga as a backup fire tinder. The main purpose would have been medical. The Chinese have known of it's health value for almost 5000 years. It is incredibly good for you. We make a tea out if ours. If you live where there are birch trees and you don't take chaga daily, your nuts!


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## Starcreek (Feb 4, 2015)

LOL! I just saw this meme on another thread here at PS, and figured it fit on this one!

This is a good thread to resurrect. Some of the trees mentioned, like birch, don't grow where I live, but I have made flour out of acorns before. Native Americans used to build little "silos" out of branches, and store acorns in them to get through the winter. They not only make a good flour, but they have fat in them that helps keep up the body fat when there's not much else to eat.


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## hiwall (Jun 15, 2012)

The outdoors is full of things to eat. The only problem is the menu is not printed out on big signs behind the counter.


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## RedBeard (May 8, 2017)

Starcreek said:


> LOL! I just saw this meme on another thread here at PS, and figured it fit on this one!
> 
> This is a good thread to resurrect. Some of the trees mentioned, like birch, don't grow where I live, but I have made flour out of acorns before. Native Americans used to build little "silos" out of branches, and store acorns in them to get through the winter. They not only make a good flour, but they have fat in them that helps keep up the body fat when there's not much else to eat.


Ya i thought so. I was gonna do a thread about chaga but found this and figured i would just add to it. Acorns are also very very good for you.


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