Scouting, Volume 69, Number 2, March-April 1981 Page: 37
58, E1-E24, [34] p. : ill. ; 28 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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SOARing Toward Eagle
BY BOB PETERSON
Illustrations by Bob Dacey
Project SOAR—short for Save Our
American Resources—is more than a
slogan for conservation-minded Eagle
Scout candidates across our country.
AT THIS MOMENT, thousands of Boy
Scouts are puzzling over what to do for
their Eagle service project as they near the
summit of Scout advancement.
They're asking friends, their Scoutmas-
ters, anybody who might have an idea. If
one of them approaches you, why not
suggest that he do something in the field of
conservation?
An original idea? No. Needed? Emphat-
ically yes. For each of those thousands of
Boy Scouts, there's a needed conservation
project in or near his community.
Besides, conservation will be on all our
minds during the program year beginning
in September. That's the Conservation
Year for the Boy Scouts of America.
Under the banner, "SOAR—Save Our
American Resources . . . for the better
life," packs, troops, and posts all across the
country will be learning what conservation
means and putting their knowledge into
action.
What better time for an Eagle candidate
to tackle conservation for his service?
What can he do? The possibilities are as
broad as all outdoors. But to be specific,
let's take a look at a few excellent Eagle
service projects in conservation that were
completed during the last year or so.
TED BRIGGS, 17, of Troop 1501,
chartered to Messiah United Methodist
Church in Springfield, Va., found his
project close to home. "I've been interest-
ed in conservation and natural resources
all my life," he said. So he looked no
further than Springfield's Hidden Pond
Park, which is administered by the Fairfax
County Park Authority.
After inspecting the park and conferring
with Park Authority Naturalist Jim Ban-
ton, he decided to stop erosion on an
eight-meter curve in a tributary stream of
Pohick Creek. At high-water times, the
stream was eating away the bank's unsta-
ble, alluvial soil, cutting into a nearby
footpath and trees.
No man to take halfway measures, Ted
Briggs studied the problem from the
viewpoints of soil conservation, water
quality, and aquatic life, using data he got
from the state capital. He then considered
alternative solutions, including diversion
of the stream and building a rock riprap
against the streambank, before deciding to
build a gabion (gabe-eon)—a structure of
steel rods, wire, poultry mesh, and rock fill
to form a stable barrier against water
erosion.
Before beginning work, he took his
10-man crew of Boy Scouts to the site,
explained the "why" and "how" of
gabions, and conducted a short course in
safe handling of heavy materials and tools.
Then, on two successive Saturdays, Ted
Briggs directed the Scouts in the construc-
tion work. Using tools he had gathered
and materials furnished by the Park
Authority, they drove the steel rods along
the bank, wove mesh over them, and
placed 8'/2 cubic meters of masonry rubble
behind the mesh fence. (Later, the gabion
was covered over with dirt to restore a
natural appearance.)
Even then, Ted wasn't finished. Using
test kits from Lake Braddock Secondary
School, where he was a senior, he checked
the water quality and found it to be un-
changed because of his gabion. Ted spent
110 hours on his project and directed 52
man-hours of work at the site.
Now that's an Eagle conservation
project! Said Jim Banton, "The gabion has
stabilized that area of the stream tremen-
dously. Now we can use it again for our
nature programs."
A former Scoutmaster, Jim Banton has
overseen many Eagle projects in Fairfax
County parks, including other gabions,
trail refurbishing, wildlife habitat work,
Scouting March/April 1981
37
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Boy Scouts of America. Scouting, Volume 69, Number 2, March-April 1981, periodical, March 1981; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth353561/m1/61/: accessed March 28, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Boy Scouts of America National Scouting Museum.