I’d like to invite you to continue following my volunteer work and community service in Boy Scouts. I’m currently working on my Eagle project at AWARE – Atlanta Wild Animal Rescue Effort – in Lithonia, Georgia at Arabia Mountain. Please follow my blog about my Eagle project at: eagleprojectbybobby.wordpress.com. Thank you for your support!
On September 8, 2018, an honor court was held at Church of the Redeemer in Snellville, where I was awarded my Hornaday Badge for the volunteer work and project I completed at Dunwoody Nature Center from 2016-2017. It was great to finally receive the award after all of the hard work I did. I’m happy to have been able to celebrate with so many people who supported me in my endeavor.
More than one year has passed since I finished my project. I submitted my completed project portfolio binder to my Council Hornaday Advisor, Mrs. Donna Kaplan, in October 2017. The Northeast Georgia Council Hornaday Committee reviewed and approved my portfolio and forwarded it to the National Boy Scout Council.
In April 2017, Mrs. Kaplan let me know that the National Council had approved my project for a Hornaday Award. After that, the Northeast Georgia Council prepared my badge and certificate in July 2018. My family and my troop, Troop 548, hosted a William T. Hornaday Honor Court for me last weekend.
Doing the Hornaday project at Dunwoody Nature Center has taught me more appreciation and respect for the environment. Science is already important to me, and my project ingrained my interest even more. I’m still interested in studying biology when I go to college, and I hope to work in a science-related field as an adult. Completing my Hornaday project showed me that I can do it, and that I can pursue what I enjoy as a career.
I was looking through my conservation project pictures today, and putting them into photo albums. It was nice to go back through my work and see all that I’ve done! I found some more really cool before and after pictures, and I’d like to post them here. Please see them to follow:
As you can see, there are lots of cool before, during, and after pictures of my work at Dunwoody Nature Center. These are just some of many photos that show my work.
For the past three months, I’ve been following up at my project site to observe the results of my work and complete any needed upkeep. I’ve been very happy with the results I’ve seen, and hope those results can be maintained or improved.
I’ve been visiting the Dunwoody Nature Center twice each month for the past three months. I’ve follow-up on and observed invasive plant regrowth by Chinese wisteria, Chinese privet, and English ivy. The main focus of my project has been to remove Chinese wisteria and privet, and I removed alot of English ivy after observing that it was beginning to grow into the areas where I removed the wisteria and privet.
On my occasions of visiting Dunwoody Nature Center to observe any invasive plant regrowth, there have been plants that grew back, but they’re much more manageable now. On my first follow-up visit, there were no plants that regrew. On my second follow-up visit, there were 30 plants that regrew. Because mom didn’t bring any RoundUp that day, she sprayed them the next time we went.
On my next follow-up visit, I observed that 80 more plants regrew. Mom sprayed those, and the I removed them on our next visit. On another follow-up visit, I observed no plants that regrew. But, on the next follow-up visit, there were 50 plants that regrew. Mom sprayed those, and I removed them.
During my follow-up visit to Dunwoody Nature Center last week, after removing the dead plants that had regrown, mom and I cut out more Chinese wisteria and Chinese privet, deeper back in the woods. We cut out another 100 invasive plants.
And, because all of the rain washed so much dirt away, wisteria runners up to 25 long were exposed on top of the ground, and we cut out as much as we could. We filled two large yard waste bags with the long wisteria runners and the 100 plants that we cut out from deeper into the woods.
For the past two weeks, the weather in Georgia has been extremely hot and humid. Last Friday at Dunwoody Nature Center, the temperature was 95 degrees Fahrenheit and the humidity was 100%. It was like a sauna! By the time mom and I were finished working, we were drenched in sweat. I drank almost 3 bottles of water that afternoon! It was too hot!
I’ve also followed up on the additional activities that I completed at Dunwoody Nature Center as part of my project. I’ve observed and it was reported to me by staff that the bird feeders were being refilled at least once per month. Staff is expecting to refill them more often between Fall and Spring now that Summer Camp season is done.
The bird baths, however, were not being cleaned or refilled. I refilled the bird feeders and bird baths when I came to do my follow-up observations and maintenance during these past three months.
During my follow-up visits, I removed branches that had fallen from trees, that were in the areas where I planted ferns. I observed that some of the ferns have doubled in size, and others have remained about the same size. All of the ferns are alive; none have died.
I also cleaned out the bird houses so they could be used by other birds to nest in the future. Unfortunately, I saw that most of the mulch that was used to mulch the two trails on my troop workday was washed away by the rain. There’s mostly bare ground showing now, and very little mulch remains on those trails.
I’ve created fliers to recruit volunteers to regularly manage invasive plants and refill the bird feeders at Dunwoody Nature Center. The fliers were posted last week. I’ve asked for anyone interested to contact me or Mrs. Loveland at the Dunwoody Nature Center for training. In the past, groups of volunteers – like from UPS – and individuals, come and volunteer at Dunwoody Nature Center. Mrs. Loveland let me know she’ll make it a priority to have volunteers manage the invasive plant growth.
There are just a couple of weeks left before I finish up my project. I plan to return to Dunwoody Nature Center in the future for more community service – like volunteering at Summer Camp again – and to follow-up and do maintenance on my project work.
This has been a really huge project for me, and has influenced me in a positive way. I’m even more interested in science, nature, and conservation now; and I’d like to be a biologist. It has been great to work with everyone at Dunwoody Nature Center, and to get the support of so many people who’ve helped me along the way!
In the past month, I’ve thanked the major supporters of my Hornaday project for all of their time, effort, and dedication to working with me. It wasn’t just me doing the work – there have been many people who helped me along the way. If it wasn’t for them, I might not have been able to do my project.
I’ve shown my appreciation to my supporters (besides my parents) in many ways. I gave them Boy Scout certificates of appreciation, thank you photo collage cards that included pictures of my work, and custom-made patches to commemorate my project. I also gave large plaques of appreciation to my supporters. For two of my major supporters, mom and I either took them out to dinner or gave them restaurant gift cards.
Because I’ve not yet entirely completed my project, I haven’t formally thanked all of my supporters. I still have a couple of items of appreciation to give to my Hornaday coach and scoutmaster. In a couple months when I finish my project, I’ll give them ‘thank yous,’ too.
The biggest thing I want my supporters to know is that I couldn’t have done my project without them. I’ve needed them to help me with paperwork, advice, time, and supervision. And, I also appreciate that most of them understand what a huge undertaking this has been for me. Every one of my supporters played a part – whether large or small – in my project’s success.
I’m considering doing more Hornaday projects in the future, and hope to have more great experiences with them. I hope my supporters will continue to give their time, effort, advice, and supervision. In the future, I hope to get more support from my troop, 548 in Snellville, and for scouts and leaders in my troop to better understand and appreciate conservation, the environment, and Hornaday projects. I’d also like to be taken more seriously by youth and adults, and for them to understand that a teen like me can complete an extensive project to better the environment.
I’m starting to work on my forms for my Hornaday Award Application, and I’ll be working on my final report over the summer. So far, I’ve earned 8 more badges than are what’s required to apply for and earn the Hornaday Badge.
In the past two years, I’ve earned 13 conservation-related Boy Scout merit badges. I earned most of them at two Hornaday Weekends, and by completing workshops at the Dunwoody Nature Center.
Out of all the badges I’ve earned so far that count toward Hornaday, my favorites, in this order, are: fishing, fly fishing, and reptile and amphibian study. I haven’t had an opportunity to earn the nature or plant science merit badges yet, but those are other ones that I’d like to get.
It’s nice to go back, now, and look at all the work I’ve completed at Dunwoody Nature Center for my Hornaday Project. My individual hours of work currently total over 230 hours, with the total hours for everyone involved currently being over 600 hours.
I’ve made a really big difference in the environment at Dunwoody Nature Center, helping native plants, shrubs, and trees not be overtaken by Chinese wisteria and privet. I’ve also removed lots of English ivy, which wasn’t even part of my original plan.
I’ve also supported the environment and ecosystem there in other ways, by mulching trails and planting ferns to prevent erosion, and helping birds by building bird houses, and regularly filling bird feeders and bird baths.
Even though the focus of my Hornaday Project was removing and managing invasive plant species at Dunwoody Nature Center, my favorite part of the project was supporting the birds. I like animals, and I’m glad I could help birds as part of my project.
In the follow-up phase of my Hornaday Project at the Dunwoody Nature Center, I’m photographing and documenting the improvements I’ve made, focusing on removal of the invasive species Chinese wisteria and Chinese privet. There was also some English ivy that I removed.
I’m not yet done and am working to maintain the progress and improvements that I’ve made during the past year. I’ve learned, already, that though I’ve dug up and removed 100s of wisteria and privet, some of them are growing back because I wasn’t able to completely remove the some of their entire roots.
The plants that are re-growing, and 100s of other wisteria and privet that I didn’t get to dig up, mom sprayed with RoundUp. After one week, it didn’t look like the RoundUp killed many of the plants, but after two weeks, all of the sprayed plants were dying, and we removed them.
Currently, I’ve now removed approximately 600 wisteria and privet plants from Dunwoody Nature Center. The wisteria has ranged in height from a few inches tall to 20 foot vines wrapped around tall trees. I’ve also removed approximately 400 English ivy plants, including dozens that traveled up tall trees.
Removing English ivy wasn’t part of my initial plan, but it was another opportunity to learn about invasive plants. Plus, it was a break from digging up all the Chinese wisteria and privet! I’m actually glad that I did remove some of the English ivy because I can see how quickly it grows and spreads. Someone’s next project at the Dunwoody Nature Center should be removing the English ivy because it now has more space to grow due to my removal of the wisteria and privet.
I officially wrapped up my Hornaday Conservation Project at the Dunwoody Nature Center (DNC) last week. I’m now going into the “report phase” and follow-up period for the next three months. During this time, I’ll be going to DNC at least two times per month to make sure that volunteers or staff have taken over my duties.
The biggest things to do in my report phase will be making sure that the wisteria and privet that I removed doesn’t grow back, and continuing to eliminate it if it does. People will also have to take over my regular fillings of the bird feeders and bird baths, and I’ll have to follow-up to make sure that’s being done.
The ferns that I planted on my troop workday are growing really well, and many of the ferns already have new growth. At least one of the five bird houses that I built was being used by wrens for nesting this spring. I’m waiting a little bit longer to check on the other bird houses to see if they’ve been used yet because I don’t want to disturb any birds if the houses are occupied. And, the trails that I mulched on my first troop workday are holding up well, too.
Last Friday, I removed at least 200 or more wisteria plants of all sizes and heights (from 2 inches to plants climbing in trees up to 20 feet high) and some privet plants (up to about 3 feet tall). These plants overstuffed two yard waste bags. Mom sprayed many of these plants with RoundUp the week before, but the RoundUp killed only the plants that were about one foot tall or shorter. The RoundUp didn’t affect plants taller than one foot. It has been a monumental challenge to remove the wisteria. What I’ve observed by removing the wisteria and privet is that the English ivy has more space to grow, so I’ve removed some of that, too.
It has been a great experience to do my Hornaday Conservation Project at Dunwoody Nature Center. I’m happy to work with nice people there, and have the opportunity to do activities that help animals and the environment. Please continue reading my blog for more information about the report phase of my project and showing appreciation to people who’ve helped me.
While working on my Hornaday project since getting my application approved in May 2016, I’ve continued to work hard in scouting in other endeavors. I love Boy Scouts and I’m very committed to being a Boy Scout. I’m working toward being an Eagle Scout.
During the time that I’ve worked on my Hornaday project so far, I’ve completed 15 merit badges, including 2 Eagle-rank badges. I’m also currently working on 2 Eagle-rank badges, and expect to earn more merit badges at summer day camp and National Jamboree.
I’ve also participated in many scout troop events, camping trips, and troop meetings, including monthly Jamboree troop meetings. I’ve only missed two troop meetings in the past 9 months for being sick or out of town, and one Jamboree troop meeting due to being out of town.
My scouting schedule has been so busy during the past year that I’m sometimes drained, especially with school and other activities. I work hard in school, am an honor student in the advanced program, and do other community service projects in addition to my Hornaday project.
I’m very committed to scouting. Besides playing video games, scouting is my favorite thing to do. I’m happy to be in scouting, learn many important life skills, and give back to the community.
MY BOY SCOUT HORNADAY CONSERVATION PROJECT 