Scouting/BSA/Wilderness Survival Merit Badge
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[edit] Requirement 1
- Show that you know first aid for and how to prevent injuries or illnesses that could occur in backcountry settings, including hypothermia, heat reactions, frostbite, dehydration, blisters, insect stings, tick bites, anbd snakebite.[emphasis added]
COMMENT: Overlaps with requirement 9.
"Could" seems an impossibly broad reach. The previous "likely" seems more reasonable.
How do we know if the candidate has passed this requirement given "could occur." Just dealing with the listed conditions is expressly NOT enough.
[edit] Requirement 2
- From memory, list the seven priorities for survival in a backcountry or wilderness location. Explain the importance of each one with your counselor."
COMMENT: The MBP states on p. 20 that these "priorities" have a fixed "order of importance," which is irrational. The situation will determine priority of survival needs.
COMMENT: The text omits such critical needs as safe navigatiion, sleep, and avoiding water emergencies.
[edit] Requirement 3
- Discuss ways to avoid panic and maintain a high level of morale when lost, and explain why this [sic] is important.
COMMENT: Former editions of the MBP required that the candidate explain how to maintain a "positive mental attitude" without expressly explaining how that objective could be accomplished. The current (2007) edition (2008 is merely 2007 edition with colored pictures.) urges in the text (p. 19) "Keep a Positive Attitude," explained as a "conscious choice to . . . endure." It then discusses the STOP process as the invariable first "priority" without expressly identifying STOP as a way to maintain a positive attitude and to avoid panic and mantain morale. STOP, like fire, is a tool to meet a need, not a need.
COMMENT: The MBP underplays the danger of being excessively "positive." Namely, denial can be as great a danger as fear, anxiety, and panic. This is only touched on ("Not recognizing and dealing with potential problems")
PREVIOUS COMMENT: (a) Always think positively. This will help you to make better descisions and think clearly. Having a shelter and fire built before dark helps you to think that you are not close to danger and that nothing can harm you. Having a fire also scares animals away.
(b)Always think positively. Thinking clearly is key to survival. Assure yourself you are close to civilization and that you are going to be ok.
[edit] Requirement 4
- Describe the steps you would take to survive in the following conditions:
- a. Cold and snowy
- b. Wet (forest)
- c. Hot and dry (desert)
- d. Windy (mountains or plains)
- e. Water (ocean or lake)
[edit] Requirement 5
- Put together a personal survival kit and explain how each item in it is useful.
COMMENT: The text does not explain the reasoning behind a "personal survival Kit" (AKA "PSK"); namely' a kit of basic gear so small that one will never be tempted to leave it behind. It confuses a PSK with the "Ten Essentials" approach to selecting gear for a wilderness trek. The eighteen items discussed, while all useful, would not fit in even the largest PSK.
[edit] Requirement 6
- Using three differnt methods (other than matches), buikld a light three fires.
COMMENT: While the text (p. 29) recognizes that the survival need is an ability to start a fire with something other than "matches and lighters," the requirement continues to allow any means other than matches. Thus, this requirement could be met with a butane lighter, propane torch, karosene pressurized blowtorch, highway flare, electric arc welder, electric soldering iron, etc.
The text on fires: contains errors regarding fire by friction (oak as the only wood mentioned - and mentioned as a good choice?!); suggests only one fire lay, and that not the best; demands on p. 29 compliance with Leave No Trace in a life-threatening survival situation (contrary to the advice on p. 26 that LNT must yield to the need to survive); warns that tinder is very flammable (well duh!); fails to mention the standard cotton and petroleum jelly tinder; fails to mention charred cloth as tinder; does not discuss using a battery to start a fire; and does not discuss how to use a ferrocerium rod (AKA "Hot Spark" or "fire steel")
[edit] Requirement 7
- Do the following:
- a. Show five different ways to attract attention when lost.
- b. Demonstrate how to use a signal mirror.
- c. Describe from memory five ground-to-air signals and tell what they mean.
[edit] Requirement 8
- Improvise a natural shelter. For the purposes of this demonstration, use techniques that have little negative impact on the environment. Spend a night in your shelter.
COMMENT: The dilemma of how to teach and have the candidate show building a field-expediant shelter when there are few opportunities to harvest the material to do so has been "solved" by eliminating the requirement that the candidate build a shelter from many live materials that would be most likely be used in a real survival situation.
[edit] Requirement 9
- ""Explain how to protect youself from insects, reptiles, and bears.
COMMENT: Omits very significant categories of animals with which there are unpleasant interactions: 1) homo sapiens; 2) rodents
Overlaps with Requirement 1.
[edit] Requirement 10
- Demonstrate three ways to treat water found in the outdoors to prepare it for drinking.
COMMENT: The text on water treatment asserts that "iodine or chlorine" "are effective and easy to use." According to the CDC, EPA, Red Cross, and U.S. military, these two chemicals are ineffective against common priotozoans that cause debilitating illness and are difficult to use due to variables that are not measurable in the field (such a ph and dissolved minerals or organics). Thus, this is dangerously inaccurate advice. If Chlorine dioxide had been named and iodine totally omitted, the advice would have been accurate. Or one could have accurately said that "chlorine and iodine" "are better than nothing."
There is no discussion of field-expedient filtering. Only commercial filters are discussed.
There is no discussion of digging mini wells, SODIS (q.v.), or boiling without metal containers.
[edit] Requirement 12
- Show that you know the proper clothing to wear in your area on an overnight in extremely hot weather and extremely cold weather.
COMEMNT: There is no explanation of what materials or construction are used for different layers. Polyester polyester fleece is not mentioned, nor are polyester wicking garments. Wool is rated as "terrific," when it is merely acceptable. The obsolescent polypropylene is mentioned.
The MBP suggests T-shirts and shorts for warm weather on p. 16 and correctly recommends long-sleeved shirts and trousers on p. 55 solely on the grounds that sunburn should be avoided. There is no mention of clothing as a barrier to insects, thorns, poisonous plants, or other sources of abrasions and cuts,
The MBP suggests a brimmed hat for warm weather, ignoring the need to avoid sunburn in cold weather. It then consistently shows illustrations of Scouts in sunny mountain scenes with no hats whatsoever (and in T-shirts and shorts!).
[edit] Requirement 12
- Explain why it usually is not wise to eat edible wild plants or wildlife in a wilderness survival situation.
COMMENT: The invariable seventh "priority" acording to the MBP is "food." The text then explains that food is not a priority. "Don't Worry About Food."
OVERALL COMMENT: This MBP seems to have been written by a committee that did not communicate well and was not familiar with current learning regarding wilderness survival. There is good information in the MBP, but it is poorly organized and poorly presented. The MBP is a seriously inferior source on wilderness survival.
[edit] External Links
- Wilderness Survival Merit Badge with Workbook PDF, current requirements, and resources.
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