"Outdoor Survival Skills has taught generations of wilderness adventurers how to survive in nature without expensive purchased equipment, instead drawing on knowledge of the land and carefully tested techniques, many of them ancient, for finding or creating shelter, fire, tools, water, and plant and animal foods"--

Larry Dean Olsen wrote the outdoor survival merit badge requirements for the Boy Scouts of America and was technical advisor for the film Jeremiah Johnson. His award-winning courses in primitive living were sponsored by institutions in the United States and Canada and he was the founder of Anasazi, a youth wilderness rehabilitation program.