As the Distinguished Conservation Service Award (DCSA) program gains traction in the National Capital Area Council (NCAC) and as youth become interested in pursuing Boy Scouts of America’s most prestigious conservation award, we thought the following examples from NCAC would help youth, their DCSA Advisors, their Conservation Advisors, and their unit leaders better understand the DCSA program and requirements.
DCSA project categories
- Energy conservation
- Soil and water conservation
- Fish and wildlife management
- Forestry and range management
- Air and water pollution control
- Resource recovery (recycling)
- Hazardous material disposal and management
- Invasive species control
- Pollinator Habitat Conservation
To date, NCAC youth have not identified a conservation issue or need in all nine of these categories, so we do not have NCAC examples in every category. As the DCSA program becomes more popular in our council, we hope to have examples in all nine categories. Some blogs below refer to the Hornaday Award, which predates the current DCSA program.
Soil & Water Conservation
Scout Restores Ravine in Potomac Overlook Park
Forestry and Range Management
DCSA Forest Restoration for Tomorrow
Fish & Wildlife Conservation
Distinguished Conservation Service Award Projects
Resource Recovery (recycling)
Match Point for Sustainability
Reel-In and Recycle!
Invasive Species Control
Hornaday Project Earns Eagle Scout the County’s Most Prestigious Environmental Award
Hornaday/Eagle Project: Stopping the Invasive Plant Invasion
Hornaday Badge Project “Evicting the Invaders”
Boo Berry Yay Fern: A project to save our native plants
Pollinator Habitat Conservation
Life Scout Builds Half-Acre Monarch Pollinator Habitat in Poolesville, MD
Poolesville Scout Awarded a National Conservation Medal
Some helpful reminders:
- Identify a DCSA Advisor
- The young person must follow the scientific approach by beginning with the identification of a conservation issue or need in the local area. Do not start with a project idea, start with a problem or need.
- The young person will compile or collect data and/or observations to better understand the conservation issue or need
- The young person will research the issue to identify ‘alternatives’, one of which will become the project
- Projects must be based on sound scientific principles and practices
- Projects must contribute to sound conservation and environmental improvement
- The young person will provide comprehensive observations showing the effect of the project on the identified conservation issue.
- The young person will demonstrate clearly outstanding efforts in planning, leadership, execution of plans, and involvement of others beyond the BSA unit
- The young person must provide opportunities to help others learn about natural resource conservation and environmental improvement
- In most cases, implementation of a traditional service project will not meet the requirements for the DCSA program
- The BSA training for a DCSA adviser is a great resource for interested youth, leaders and parents to get a better idea of the size, scope and time required for a single DCSA project
DCSA resources:
BSA Distinguished Conservation Service Award Program
BSA Distinguished Conservation Service Award Project Workbook
Executive Summary Template
Complete list of award requirements
