Fledging leaders

Eagles Scouts have landed and left their mark almost everywhere in the Inland Northwest.

Our nest is better for their years of effort required to achieve Boy Scouting’s highest rank.

Recreation and wildlife sites in parks and other public lands get a windfall of pampering in these leadership projects because of scouting’s orientation to the outdoors.

For example, the elaborate and professionally installed trail signs at Palisades City Park are the handiwork of an Eagle Scout.

Another Eagle candidate quietly hiked every weekend for months into a remote area of the Idaho Panhandle to survey nesting bald eagles and provide valuable information for managing national forest resources.

Mount Spokane State Park is a popular perch for Eagle Scout handiwork, such as:

fire lookout available for rent on Quartz Mountain.

“Trail signs, ski racks and coat racks at the nordic ski trails and Selkirk Lodge.

“Culverts installed to prevent hiking trail wash-outs.

“The concrete outhouse installed on the mountain’s summit last fall, providing comfort year round for Vista House skiers and visitors — the product of a scout’s $10,000 fund-raising effort for construction costs.

“The chalet for disabled downhill skiers —a perfect match to the huge Swiss-style Ski Patrol Lodge — requiring the help off 65 volunteers and construction professionals totaling nearly 900 hours of labor and $15,000 of fund-raising. The project would have cost about $50,000 on the open market.

Each year, about 230 Eagle Scout service projects are completed in this area boosted by 50,000-55,000 volunteer hours from friends, families and other scouts and about $1 million in donated materials, said Tim McCandless, executive director of the Inland Northwest Council of Boy Scouts of America.

“The community support is huge,” he said.

Bucking the trend of America’s declining orientation to public service groups, Eagle Scout numbers have been increasing in the past 10 years, McCandless said. “Three quarters of these scouts are 17 before they satisfy all the requirements for Eagle Scout,” he added.

Last weekend, with the sun bearing down and forcing even the rattlesnakes into the shade, Eric Weigle of Spokane was managing a shovel-and-bucket crew in a project to enhance a trout spawning channel at Coffee Pot Lake.

“No, I’m not really a fisherman,” the 14-year-old high school freshman said.

But his project could be a boost to anglers if it encourages rainbow trout to move into Lake Creek in the spring to release their eggs.

As it is, trout stage at the mouth of the creek each spring. The few that find suitable gravel to release their eggs will likely survive to swim back into the lake and grow another year larger for the eventually pleasure of lucky anglers.

Rainbows that don’t find a place in the creek to release their eggs are likely to die as their bodies attempt to reabsorb them.

Weigle had learned these and other details in his research with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and with Donley, who had to authorize the state permit required before Weigle could tinker with the stream.

The scout had already invested roughly 45 hours of research into the project —contacting agencies, getting permits, developing a plan and a budget, arranging donations, enlisting manpower — when he arrived with dad, mom, brother and four other members of his Venture Crew 33 at the Coffee Pot boat ramp.

They were greeted by Donley, two BLM workers and a daunting pile of gravel. Inland Asphalt Co. had donated the material, transportation and driver who dumped the load in a big heap.

Weigle and his volunteers had to transfer the mountain of stones to the spawning channel using shovels and buckets that would be hauled a short distance over the lake. Glen Paulsen, the BLM caretaker at Coffee Pot, volunteered his boat for the shuttles.

Despite all the planning and effort, the work did not go as planned.

Vegetation had overwhelmed most of the creek since Weigle had scouted the site several times during winter.

The labor force was a little skimpy to hand-haul the mountain of material over rough terrain where every route deviation had to be scrutinized like a mine field to be rattlesnake free.

“We didn’t get to move all of the gravel,” Weigle said Monday. “We ran out of time and places to put it with the stream so overgrown. We left the rest of the gravel there. Mr. Paulsen said it would be used later.”

Scouting officials smile on the challenges Weigle encountered.

“That’s the spirit and purpose of these projects,” said Greg Bever, publisher of the Journal of Business and Eagle Scout who volunteered to review Eagle Scout projects for years.

“One of the most interesting things we’ve learned over the years is that young people are afraid to make mistakes.

“We want (Eagle Scout candidates) to push beyond their comfort zone. If it doesn’t work out entirely as planned they must address that in their report. It’s part of learning a valuable lesson about the way life really is. They learn even more by modifying their plan.”

They make our world a better place just for trying, he said.

By 1 p.m. last Saturday, Weigle’s team was dissolving. Agency supervisors had other work to do and the crew of boys was getting hot and weary.

Eric’s father, Scott and brother, Robert — both Eagle Scouts — and Eagle-worthy mother, Betsy took the day in stride. Helpers Scott Strong, Ben Marks, Nick Preston and Daniel Bell-Garrison did their duty.

“The boys might whine a little when the work is hard, but they always find a way to have fun when they’re doing something as a group,” Scott said.

“By the time I dropped them off in town, they were already making plans to help their buddies on the next two Eagle projects coming up.”