Making a birch bark lean to shelter

[Billy1]

Hi I am planning on making a lean to shelter in my back garden so I can sleep outside next to a fire. I will make a frame out of hazel and cover it in sheets of birch bark, I am not concerned with it being overly warm but I would like it to keep me dry. I have a few questions about it...

1) Considering how good birch bark is for starting fires, is it a safe material to use considering I will be sleeping under it next to a fire?

2) Are there any other types of bark I can use which will provide me with the same water-proofing effect?

3) I have read that that as long as I only harvest the outer layer of bark, do it in the spring and am careful not to cut into the cambium, the tree will not be harmed. Is this correct?

4) Will it last a decent about of time, or will the bark quickly start to rot forcing me to constantly replace it?.... If so, what would you recommend as a natural material to waterproof a shelter?

Thanks a lot!

 

[Shewie]

I'm not sure what the birches are like in Norwich but I wouldn't have thought the bark wouldn't be thick enough. It's probably American literature you've read and with their temps in the north growth is much slower and the bark much thicker.

 

[Mesquite]

1) Should be perfectly fine. Lost of North American tribes used birch bark for their shelters

2) Not sure

3) It may not harm the tree but it would leave it hideously scarred at the very least. Preference would be to harvest from dead trees or recently felled trees. I'd be interested to the article that told you it's fine to harvest live trees.

4) I've seen dead trees where the bark is still sound whilst the wood underneath has rotted right away so it should last a pretty long time.

 

[munkiboi182]

Hi billy. Not sure if birch bark is going to be your best option. When you harvest it in sheets in the UK you usually find it will quickly curl up. The birch that grows overseas peels better and holds it's shape better. Where in Norwich are you? I can show you a few good spots to find plenty of dead birch.

 

[ozzy1977]

In this part of the world you will find it difficult to get birch of sufficient size to harvest enough bark.

 

[Billy1]

I'm not sure what the birches are like in Norwich but I wouldn't have thought the bark wouldn't be thick enough. It's probably American literature you've read and with their temps in the north growth is much slower and the bark much thicker.

Ah ok, didn't think of that I'll have a go anyway and see how it turns out!

 

[Clouston98]

In this part of the world you will find it difficult to get birch of sufficient size to harvest enough bark.

My thoughts too .

You'd be better off using pine boughs .

 

[Billy1]

Hi billy. Not sure if birch bark is going to be your best option. When you harvest it in sheets in the UK you usually find it will quickly curl up. The birch that grows overseas peels better and holds it's shape better. Where in Norwich are you? I can show you a few good spots to find plenty of dead birch.

Not actually in Norwich anymore! Recently moved to near Diss. Where do you of where I can find dead birch?

 

[Billy1]

My thoughts too .

You'd be better off using pine boughs .

I considered this, but assumed it wouldn't be suitable for a permanent shelter when the boughs die? Would it be fine if I just put on enough layers?

 

[munkiboi182]

Plenty of dead birch round ringland and horsford common. They recently felled several dozen at the latter

 

[Billy1]

1) Should be perfectly fine. Lost of North American tribes used birch bark for their shelters

2) Not sure

3) It may not harm the tree but it would leave it hideously scarred at the very least. Preference would be to harvest from dead trees or recently felled trees. I'd be interested to the article that told you it's fine to harvest live trees.

4) I've seen dead trees where the bark is still sound whilst the wood underneath has rotted right away so it should last a pretty long time.

Here is the article I found: http://www.instructables.com/id/Harvesting-Birch-Bark/

 

[Billy1]

Plenty of dead birch round ringland and horsford common. They recently felled several dozen at the latter

Ok cheers

 

[Clouston98]

I considered this, but assumed it wouldn't be suitable for a permanent shelter when the boughs die? Would it be fine if I just put on enough layers?

Yes, sphagnum moss really helps too .

 

[bushwacker bob]

Your link is to an American site harvesting paper bark birch, different species to the Native thin barked Betula pendular

 

[Billy1]

Your link is to an American site harvesting paper bark birch, different species to the Native thin barked Betula pendular

Ah ok, do you know of any species of tree which I could harvest sheets of bark from in the UK?

 

[ozzy1977]

Lime can be peeled, it was used for rope, chestnut can also be peeled but I dont think either willl be suitable.
It might be worthwhile going to Tunstall or Rendlesham forest, only about 40 mins from you.

 

[munkiboi182]

What about thatching. Loads of reed round this way. Or Find a local Thatcher and by a decent bundle for about 4 quid. I got loads of it to build permanent shelters for our bushcraft school from a Thatcher for free as he was taking off a roof.

 

[petrochemicals]

Have thought about ray making his canoe, stripping the bark off silver birch, and comparing them to silver birch in this country. Any silver birch over 6 inches I've seen has mature bark ie, dark broken bark. I remember other trees where the smooth bark peels of, but I couldn't tell you the spieces. Hazarding a guess sycamore and beech sound like a good start, or you could try rough split planks using the wedge tequnique.

Edit.

As an example the japanese use a cypress bark as roofing so it must be possible. Ray also was told that there are less and less suitable usable trees, can't remember the reason.

Edit 2.

Rowan bark also seems to have the horizontal charicteristics of young silver birch. Just a thought.

Edit 3.

Just checked rowan bark only horizontal and papery on the very outside for a very thin layer. Underneath, it is a standard thick bark for the vast majority of the thickness

 

[petrochemicals]

well you learn something everyday. 2 classical birches in the uk, both have silver bark, I'm informed, what I thought was birch in the hedgerows with its smooth trunk is Horbeam, Latin meaning Birch like, and now classified technically as a birch. Just one question, what are the trees I see with bark almost identical to youngish oak, with leaves like birch ? Mature Birch ?

Edit:

quote

"After the frame had been erected, the women
covered the roof and sides with six to nine-foot
strips of bark from the elm, chestnut, birch or
oak, lapping them like great shingles,
andsewing them together with a thread from
evergreen tree roots. As Gookin noted, instead of bark for roofing, they might fasten mats
which were woven from reeds, flags, sedge or,
for lack of better material, cornstalks-all neatly
sewed together “with needles made from the
splinter bones of a crane's legge with thread of
their Indian hempe.”

from

www.greatdreams.com/native/nativehsg.htm

 

[bushwacker bob]

They dont produce silvering on the bark until 3 or 4 years old, young trees less than 1-2" diameter usually have reddish brown bark.