ELEVEN CUB Scouts from a suburban den have staked out a large chunk of Du Page County Forest Preserve turf and are making it their project to earn the Presidential Youth Environmental Achievement Award.
”We`ve done a lot of little projects, and I wanted to do something that had a little more substance to it, something challenging and not tedious,”
said Miles Davis, of Bartlett, den leader for Pack 51 at the Laurel Hills School in Hanover Park for two years and full-time substation operator for Commonwealth Edison Co.
The project, which involves almost 400 acres in the West Branch Du Page County Forest Preserve in near West Chicago, is not ”extraordinary, but it`s not a usual task to take on,” Davis said.
The 11 Scouts, all 9-year-olds, have spent three consecutive Saturdays filling trash bags with litter from the area. They`ll continue to patrol the area for a year, he said.
TO HELP them understand the environment for which they are caring, the boys were given a lecture on common plants and animal life in the area by Jim Walser, a naturalist at Fullersburg Nature Center in Oak Brook.
The area the boys are patrolling is south of Army Trail and Smith Roads and west of the West Branch of the Du Page River.
After the lecture, the boys went to the area to observe how it changes with the seasons. They tested the water for oxygen content and phosphates and have been taking temperature readings. The tests show that the oxygen content was normal and the phosphate level was high, but not dangerous for human consumption.
In other parts of the country, Davis said, Cub Scout packs adopt parks or soccer fields and maintain them for the award, which can be earned by participating in anything involving cleaning up the environment.
In the past, the den has passed out voter registration information and donated money to the Statue of Liberty restoration fund and to an uncle of one of the Scouts who was injured in a diving accident.
SEARCHING FOR a different kind of project, Davis attended a den leaders powwow and decided the forest preserve project would be interesting.
To complete the project, the boys will fill a log book with data, temperature and water readings and photographs taken of the area, to present to Walser.
The Scouts are in the 4th grade at Eastview School in Bartlett and at Horizon School in Hanover Park.
