Scouts Trips Into The Wilds Include Service Projects

Sun., Oct. 10, 1999

Rich Landers Outdoors Editor

Boy Scouts aren’t just up to kid stuff on their summer outings.

The era of hacking saplings with hatchets is giving way to an age of conservation enlightenment.

For example, Spokane’s Troop 430 combined a service project in August with a week-long, 74-mile trek through the Pasayten Wilderness.

The 13 boys from the West Valley School District worked with the Okanogan National Forest to build stream crossings and survey trail conditions in areas that are difficult for Forest Service crews to monitor.

The boys, ages 13-17, kept notes on clipboards as they inventoried water bars, measured bogs and described conditions of bridges and placement of signs.

And they still had time for fishing, exploring and peak bagging, said former scoutmaster and trip leader John Cooley.

“They’re pretty amazing boys,” Cooley said, noting that the scouts and four adult leaders hauled packs over passes for a total elevation gain of 10,800 feet during the week.

Last year, most of the same boys floated 119 miles on the Columbia River From Columbia Lake downstream past Golden, British Columbia. En route, they worked with a Kootenay National Park naturalist to help restore a great blue heron rookery by fencing poplar trees to give them a respite from beavers.

“We practice “leave no trace” wherever we go,” said Cooley. “When we leave a camp, there’s no wrappers on the ground.

Laurie Dowie of the Twisp Ranger District appreciates the help the scouts offered this summer.

“Volunteer help is becoming more important as Forest Service maintenance budgets shrink,” she said.

Dowie, the lead wilderness ranger for the Pasayten, said Cooley has called and organized two work projects involving his scouts.

Still, she said, it’s fairly rare for scouting groups to offer such help, even though they are common users of the wilderness.

“I hope his lead catches on,” she said.

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