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Eagle Project

Boo Berry Yay Fern: A project to save our native plants.

August 21, 2022 by Siddha Bambardekar

INVASIVE SPECIES 101

Invasive species are animals or plants from another region of the world that don’t belong in their new environment. Invasive species can lead to the extinction of native plants and animals, destroy biodiversity, and permanently alter habitats.

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EXAMPLES OF INVASIVE SPECIES: MY PERSONAL FAVORITE – WINEBERRY

Wineberry is an Asian species of raspberry native to China, Japan, and Korea. The species was introduced to Europe and North America as an ornamental plant and for its potential in breeding hybrid raspberries. Now, it covers forest floors, stealing water and nutrients from native plants.

My Eagle project Boo Berry Yay Fern was called so for a reason! As a part of my Eagle and DCSA project, I enlisted volunteers and logged over 200 hours cleaning invasive Wineberry from Tattersall park in Oakton! Yay to Ferns, which are Virginia native plants, and Boo to Wineberry for hampering their growth.

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JAPANESE STILTGRASS

Japanese stiltgrass was originally brought to the US from Japan as packing material. The seeds were able to spread through this, and now it steals water and nutrients from native plants.

For those who don’t know its dangers, it looks pretty amazing. Walk through a woodland and you see all this lush green grass growing under the trees. The trouble is; that is all you will see. There is absolutely nothing else growing there but Japanese stiltgrass. It takes over everything and smothers out all the native plants that should be growing in the woodland. In fact, the unchecked growth of siltgrass has gotten too out-of-hand in some areas, forcing counties to declare this noxious weed as an “introduced” species, indicating that the problem is on too large of a scale to deal with.

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EMERALD ASH BORER

Brought from China, most likely inside various forms of packing material. Burrow into Ash trees and eat away the inner bark, causing the tree to die when the bark is gone.

These pests have been causing mass die-offs of ash and other trees all across the US. These die-offs remove the forest leaf canopy, causing more sunlight to reach the forest floor. Due to this increased sunlight, invasive plants can spread much more easily. Nonetheless, Emerald ash borers form a lethal combo with any other invasive plant species.

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JAPANENSE HONEYSUCKLE

Also brought from Japan as an ornamental houseplant, and was released into the wild. However, it can grow to incredible sizes and choke out native wildlife.

Japanese honeysuckle directly benefits from the increased light on forest floors that is caused by the emerald ash borers. While it may look good as an ornamental plant, after a point, it will start growing at unparalleled speeds, at which a single plant is able to reach sizes of up to 30 feet long!

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A COLD HARD FACT

4300: Number of unique invasive species in the USA, as estimated by the Department of Fish & Wildlife management.

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INVASIVE SPECIES MANAGEMENT 101

DETECTION
Certain apps -like that provided by the Fairfax County IMA program- can use your phone’s camera to identify invasive species. If the plant is new to the area, report it to the respective agency.

PREVENTION
Most invasive species have their seeds spread by your clothes. Always wipe yourself and brush your shoes at the designated station before leaving a park.

CORRECTION

To help stop these damaging invasive species from spreading and destroying our native plants and animals, we must remove them. When these are removed, ensure that you are removing them from their roots (some may have deep roots), to have a lasting effect!

Sign up for cleanups and conservation efforts, and if you see invasive species, get rid of them. Every little bit will help in our fight against invasive species.

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RESULT: YAY FERN!!!

Putting a stop on invasive species will help the native environment to thrive, not just native plants, but native animals and the entire ecosystem! This is an example of a section in Tattersall Park, Oakton, which now shouts out “ YAY Fern!”

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AS A SCOUT

Join cleanups & projects that are removing invasive plants and planting new native species in their place.

Spread the word! Promote understanding of native plants by educational outreach. This can be just emails, blogs (such as this one), presentations, public fairs booths, farmers market booths etc. You can certainly get creative!

For more information, you can visit the IMA site at https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/invasive-management-area

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CITATIONS

Fairfax County Invasive Management area: https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/invasive-management-area
US Fish and Wildlife Service: https://www.fws.gov/
Picture Credits: Google images (Licensed for usage)

Filed Under: Eagle of the Week Tagged With: Conservation, Eagle Project, invasive plants

Covid didn’t stop these Eagle Scouts

July 1, 2022 by NCAC - ANNANDALE NEWS

Reposted from Annandale Today with permission.

The Covid pandemic has been hard for everyone, and that includes members of Scout troops. Nevertheless, three members of Troop 1525, all graduating seniors, were recognized for attaining Eagle Scout status at a Court of Honor ceremony June 7.

“We are calling them Covid Eagles because they all performed their service projects and earned their Eagle rank during Covid,” says Phillip Sandino, scoutmaster of Troop 1525, which is based at St. Matthews United Methodist Church in Annandale.

Boy Scouts from Troop 1525 and helpers work on cubbies for the Canterbury Woods pool.

Tommy Nguyen, a graduate of Woodson High School, removed invasive plant species at the South Run Rec Center for his Eagle project.

Another Woodson graduate, Cal Sandino, built storage cubbies for the Canterbury Woods Swim Club.

For his Eagle project, Robinson Secondary School graduate Ike Walker built bat boxes for his community pool to attract bats as a way to reduce the mosquito population.

Troop 1525 adopted new procedures during the past two years due to Covid, Sandino said. Meetings were held online, and the troop focused on individual activities, such as hiking and biking.

Instead of two-day camping trips, the scouts stayed local, exploring such places as Rock Creek Park and Roosevelt Island. And because carpooling wasn’t allowed, parents had to drive the boys to activities individually.

Filed Under: Eagle of the Week Tagged With: Eagle Project, Eagle Scout, Service Project

Eagle Scout Sends 168 Bikes to Sierra Leone

January 18, 2022 by The Scouter Digest Staff

Manav G. of Troop 1983 grew up in India. There he saw extreme poverty first-hand, with families begging in the street to feed their children, and the daily struggles of the people were impoverished. As a result, when he moved to America at age 9, Manav was struck by the luxuries and privileges that many Americans took for granted.

When he joined Scouts BSA to find a community and friends in his new hometown, Manav immediately latched on to the Scouting message of giving back to and raising up others. His dedication extended even to his favorite merit badge, Citizenship in the World, which allowed him to, in his eyes, “see my impact and the ways I can make the world a better place and help, even as a 13 or 15-year-old kid.” So when the time came for his Eagle Project, Manav knew he wanted something that gave back globally. So he collaborated to create a Bike Drive with Bikes For The World. This leading non-profit organization collects unwanted bikes from across America to supply community development programs in impoverished areas of developing nations. The bikes he collected would be destined for Sierra Leone, where children would use them for recreation and adults for their business and travel.

Manav spent the eight days leading up to the bike drive in a focused marketing mode. Worried that, even in a city, there were only so many people with bikes and fewer willing to donate, Manav ensured that his project would reach a broad audience. He combined online social media postings with paper fliers put up in key locations around the city. He also contacted local churches, attended online meetings, and went in person to speak wherever he could. Though the Scout wished he had even more time to continue raising awareness, Manav’s efforts had paid off when the day of the drive came.

Despite his worries about the short marketing period, Manav’s drive was an overwhelming success. Like clockwork, as bikes came in, Manav’s team would quickly offload and begin dismantling them to make it cheaper and easier to transport them abroad. The team would then load the dismantled bikes onto trucks headed for the Bikes of the World headquarters. Such was the massive amount of bikes collected that, at one point, the Scout remembered they covered more than two entire parking spots. With 168 bikes collected, Manav’s project had blown past his troop’s prior record, beating the previous highest bike drive by over 60 bikes.

Though his project has concluded, Manav remains dedicated to helping others worldwide. Manav holds monthly bake sales for the AURED Trust, which supplies hearing aids to hearing-impaired children throughout India. He is also currently interning with an organization dedicated to providing free vaccinations throughout rural America. He plans to study business in college and use his studies to find an intersection between finance and conservation.

Manav urges Scouts to “make the push to Eagle. It’s so worth it. When you look back, it will be such a learning experience and it will be so worth it. There are always going to be things you don’t expect, but try to work around that, and you’ll find all the fun you have with it.”

Filed Under: Eagle of the Week Tagged With: Eagle of the Week, Eagle Project, Eagle Scout

Troop 162 Scout Restores “Unrepairable” Benches

January 11, 2022 by Christian Englehardt

From the moment he joined Cub Scouts, Colton M. of Troop 162, Arlington, VA, knew that he wished to be an Eagle Scout. To him, that meant “Someone who lives by the Scout oath and law, is a leader, good at helping people, and making sure things happen on time and well. Someone who you can depend upon.” When he crossed the bridge into Scouts BSA, he moved quickly to make it a reality. In two years, he made it to Life and now, at just 13, has completed his Eagle Project.

For his Eagle Project, Colton worked with Westover Baptist Church after he noticed their preschool playground was greatly in need of restoration. The playground’s picnic tables and lawn bench were in a state of disrepair, to the point that the Church’s local pastor feared that the picnic tables would need to be replaced in their entirety, and the lawn bench (the pastor’s favorite) would need to be thrown out. Working with his fellow Scouts, Colton was able to refurbish two of the picnic tables and build four more from scratch, perhaps most importantly, the Scout was able to save the lawn bench. Seeing Colton’s success in saving something he had thought unsalvageable, the pastor was “flabbergasted” and inspired to dedicate a sermon to the project and the restoration.

Throughout the process, Colton employed the leadership and time management skills Scouting had instilled in him. Though initially, he was, in his own words “overbearing,” Colton soon realized that a leader didn’t need to be everywhere and command everyone. This allowed him to step back and delegate tasks. Spacing out activities created ample time for both breaks and improvisation, so that when the Scout faced difficulties like an unexpected break in the wood of the lawn bench, they had the capacity to manage a solution.

Colton is now looking at high school options and hopes to find a school that offers a robust 3D-modeling program and a strong STEM field specialization, especially in engineering. For now, he spends his time working with his own 3D printer and in his father’s woodshop, where he creates all manner of projects, “turning what’s in my head into real life in just a few hours.”

To all Scouts looking to be Eagles, Colton advises, “take a deep breath and plan everything. Don’t rush into it. Make sure everything is planned out properly. Check over every detail, think about every detail, and make sure everything will come out right. Then when you are executing what you planned, everything will come out nicely, and you’ll save yourself a lot of time.”                     

 

Filed Under: Eagle of the Week Tagged With: Eagle of the Week, Eagle Project, Eagle Scout

Troop 1444 Scout Teaches Elderly Church Members Computer Skills

January 5, 2022 by Christian Englehardt

Life Scout Hazael M. of Troop 1444 noticed a sudden drop in attendance at his church following the shift from physical meetings to virtual during the pandemic; concerned, he resolved to find out why. Hazael emailed a survey to all regular attendees; what he found was that many members of his church, especially the seniors to which it typically catered, felt uncomfortable with the new technology and didn’t know how to use programs like Zoom to access the sermons. Hazael decided to use his Eagle Project to address this problem and rallied both his church and volunteers to help seniors develop technological literacy. 

Hazael recognized that many older parishioners lacked the necessary digital devices and sought help from his community, successfully obtaining two computers to donate to seniors in need. Hazael then organized educational events in conjunction with his church; these were held on Zoom to encourage people in their first steps with the program. This training also allowed people to call into the Zoom Room via phone if they still felt uncomfortable with the application. Hazael created online presentations demonstrating to seniors the do’s and don’ts of Zoom, online communication, and several other key digital programs, and set up breakout rooms where helpers could walk seniors through the technology. 

When Hazael learned one particular active and outgoing member of his church couldn’t attend the sessions due to extreme visual impairments that prevented him from using Zoom rooms or even seeing his computer screen, the Scout took a more hands-on approach. Hazael brought one of the donated computers to the parishioner’s house and worked with him personally to activate the accessibility features on his computer and walk him through the digital processes.

Hazael’s project was well-received by the church members; as he recalls, “The best part was, after the training, when they left the breakout room they’d come to me. They’d say “Thank you Hazael” or “This was really helpful.” They said I should share it with other churches and do it in other places where I could. It felt really great to be appreciated.”

Wanting to further maximize his project’s impact, Hazael used his project to promote the community’s ongoing vaccination efforts: as seniors were walked through the process of online communications, volunteers would also assist them in registering to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, finding locations with open availability and guiding them through the process of signing up. 

To all Scouts thinking about their path to Eagle Scout, Hazael offers this advice: “Make sure you’re really determined and upfront in what you want to do and how you want to do it. If you’re not the most confident in what you want to do, or interested in, you won’t really have the motivation to carry through. You don’t want to stop halfway through and change your ideas.”

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Eagle of the Week, Eagle Project, Eagle Scout

Troop 1154 Scout Creates Innovative Storage Unit

December 28, 2021 by Christian Englehardt

Maximilian K. of Troop 1154, Ashburn, VA, joined Scouts as a Cub Scout, spurred on by his parents to participate in such a “positive program” in their community. Never, however, did he think he’d make Eagle. “My family didn’t really want me to stick with Scouting this long, just because it was such a commitment for them… I never saw myself getting Eagle at first, but as I kept going through it, my parents started to see how good Scouting was for me.” Now, with his parent’s assistance and backing, the prospective Eagle Scout has finished his project.

Maximilian knew from the beginning that he wanted to focus on helping animals. He reached out to a local animal shelter and learned that the shelter was moving to a much larger facility; this required an overhaul of their food storage system. In the existing storage system, a lot of food would expire before it could be used, wasting money and space. Working with his dad, an engineer, Maximilian set to work designing a solution. He created a system with unique lane structures from scratch, where cans of pet food would be placed in the top, and, line up as they gradually rolled to the bottom. The three structures he would install in the shelter – two dedicated dog units and one cat unit – held thirty and sixty lanes respectively, with each lane allowing for around thirty cans at any time. “They’re so much bigger than anything else, there are a lot of smaller designs like this, but we need it so large that you can’t find anything like them online.”

The lane size brought difficulties, however, because they were too large to assemble anywhere but on-site, meaning little testing could occur prior to assembly. Additionally, the construction itself proved difficult, as the thickness of the wood coupled with the project size made hammering nails in and gluing boards together a challenge. But, using the EDGE method, Maximilian taught his fellow Scouts how to assemble and work with the storage units, overcoming these hurdles without incident. Maximilian remembered the sense of nervousness and triumph around the construction, “I didn’t know how it would go, the design was completely on us. When we brought over Scouts, it was the first time we really built it. We were really worried if it would hold all together or things would meet the deadline. The moment after we finished, and nothing fell apart, was definitely the best part of the experience.” Now, the units serve as the core of the shelter’s food storage, ensuring nothing is wasted and all food is put to use.

Looking forward, Maximilian is about to age out of Scouts BSA, but he has no intention of leaving his troop behind. “The thing that was most fun about Scouting was my friends. It was them that pushed me forward to go and become Eagle… I know I’ll be friends with them for a long time.” He looks to continue helping his troop at upcoming food drives and wishes to remain an active presence in the community. As for his career, Maximilian has set his eyes on becoming a lawyer, like his mother, and is seeking the college that can give him the best pre-law experience possible.

For all prospective Eagles, Maximilian had this to say: “Immediately start your project when you become Life. It’s one of those things that’s a lot bigger than it seems. Perseverance is key, if you want to get Eagle and do anything in Scouting, you’ve got to persevere. If you want to get anywhere in Scouting, you just got to push through the rough stuff and get where you want to be.”

 

Filed Under: Eagle of the Week Tagged With: Eagle of the Week, Eagle Project, Eagle Scout

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