Primitive Technology: Fallen Tree Shelter

A lot of articles on LeoFinance, especially those about technology, love to talk about the latest technology and devices. However, this article (and some of the articles that I am planning on writing in the future) is about primitive technology that might be useful in any survival scenario where all you have access to are the materials you can locate in nature. One of the primitive technologies I want to mention is primitive shelter building. Imagine, for one reason or another, you are lost in the middle of the forest and you need to quickly build yourself a new place to stay in order to survive. There are plenty of simple shelters you can create, but no shelter is simpler than the fallen tree shelter. In fact, according to scoutlife.org it is pretty much the simplest shelter you can build if you are in any environment with plenty of trees around (forests, jungles,savanna,swamp, etc.) and you can find one of said trees fallen over.

How do you build a fallen tree shelter? Well, first you need to find a tree that has fallen over and make sure it is still, despite falling over, structurally stable enough to lean branches against it & make sure it won't fall down/collapse on top of you anytime soon. If you are building a fallen tree shelter under a very large fallen tree with a large trunk, it might not be best to use this as a structure. If you have to use something like this to make a fallen tree shelter, you might want to jump on the trunk a few times to see if it is about to decay to the point where it can fall over at any moment. If the trunk remains stable and doesn't fall down after you jump on it a few times with your full weight, then it might make sense to use it for a fallen tree shelter. If you are building under a large enough tree trunk, this checking process is very important. A fifty foot hardwood tree weighs around two thousand pounds and if it falls on you, you will be injured at best or, at the very worst, killed. If you are building under a small tree that has fallen over, this will be less of a problem, but you will still need to make sure the tree that is the center of the structural integrity of your shelter does not fall over.

Above is a picture of a large tree that could be used as a shelter, but you might need to jump on it a few times to make sure it is stable enough & won't collapse to the ground on top of you. Once you find a stable enough tree to create a fallen tree shelter,you will want to collect branches and lean said branches against the windward side of the tree (so the wind will be blowing into your shelter and not against it). This will create the 'wall' of your shelter. You need to make the wall thick enough to keep the wind out and not have said wall collapse if the wind blows very hard. You can then add more branches, large leaves, brush, and other materials to help cover the wall. On the open side of the shelter you can create a fire to help keep you warm. If you are being hit by the elements from both sides, you can use branches to build walls on both sides of the fallen tree to produce an 'A-frame'-style shelter. When you are done, your shelter should look something like this:

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