During the early afternoon today the weather conditions produced both thunder and pouring rain. Later in the early evening the sky had cleared up quite a bit but the grounds and trees were still wet. I was interested in seeing how effective birch bark would fare as tinder to get a camp fire going.

Because of the oily nature of birch bark I have demonstrated In the past it’s ability to be doused in water, wiped off, then easily lit with a flame, but now I wanted to put it to the test in building a camp fire.

I approached a near-by river birch tree and carefully removed a few pieces of it’s flaking bits of bark. Then I began to search for small thin dead branches among trees above the ground hoping to find dryer material but everything was still wet. On some of the larger dead branches the outer wet bark was easily removed which exposed a dryer core.

I found a rock upon which I began to build a lean-to fire-lay starting with a portion of the birch bark, then the smallest branches were placed over it with consecutively larger ones above those. The remaining birch bark piece I lit with a lighter then placed that on top of the initial birch bark base.

The birch bark tinder produced a sustained flame that was able to ignite the damp branches above it. I added more branches as the fire began to grow. In the end I achieved a very usable campfire that could be sustained for the evening.

This knowledge of birch bark as tinder could be crucial in wet circumstances and especially in an emergency scenario.