The majestic redwood trees so familiar to residents in parts of California and Oregon are truly a sight to behold. Reaching incredible heights and living thousands of years, these trees are special, but there are far fewer of them than there once were.
Eagle Scout candidate Liam B. is looking to do something about that.
According to the 10,000 Redwoods Project, a group that aims to plant 10,000 redwood trees in the San Francisco area, “due to overharvesting, only five percent of the original old-growth coast redwood trees remain, and they are listed as ‘endangered’ by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.”
Liam, a Scout from the Boy Scouts of America Marin Council, wanted to help increase the population of redwood trees, so, for his Eagle Scout project, he worked with the 10,000 Redwoods Project to construct 10 redwood propagation benches. These benches can be used by schoolchildren to help grow seedlings of redwood trees.
With some redwood trees living thousands of years, this is an Eagle Scout project that could have a truly lasting impact.
“I was inspired to support the 10,000 Redwood Project because it gives kids in the Bay Area a chance to not only learn about climate change, but actually do something about it by growing native redwood trees,” said Liam. “It’s cool to think that hundreds or even thousands of years from now these trees will be a part of the landscape,” he added.
Once the school year is over, all of the redwood trees that were grown on the benches built by Liam will be collected and transferred to a nearby native plant nursery, where they will be cared for until they can reach maturity and be planted.
The schools will keep the benches so that they can continue to participate in the process and grow other native plants in the future.
To learn more about this unique Eagle Scout project, be sure to read the information about it at the Turtle Island Restoration Network site.
To learn more about the positive impact that Scouting can have on young people like Liam, be sure to check out this article on the recent Tufts study, and watch this video:
