Nature Study

Watch British wilderness bushcraft expert Ray Mears explore the Canadian wilderness in this fantastic six part series. We are off to Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario to go canoeing this summer, and we’ll be right on the Southern edge of the boreal forest I especially appreciated his visit with David Henry author of Canada’s Boreal Forest in the first episode. The Forgotten Forest The journey begins in Canada’s vast Boreal Forest, where the knowledge of the people who have called it home is essential to survival....

*During his lifetime Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, wrote many books and articles directed to Scouters.*Each Sunday I’ll publish a selection from his writings in the hope that you’ll draw inspiration and understanding from his timeless ideas. Why is Nature Lore considered a Key Activity in Scouting? That is a question on which hangs the difference between Scout work and that of the ordinary Boys’ Club or Brigade....

One of my favorite writers and noted American naturalist Aldo Leopold is, perhaps, the first to describe what is now known as a “trophic cascade”. Leopold observed over-grazed mountain slopes and connected this with the extermination of wolves. How trophic cascades work, and how they can be restored is explained in this video about the far-reaching effects of the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone; Scouting provides young people the opportunity to understand how our own lives are woven into the fascinatingly complex web of life....

Scouts can join scientific collaborations in nearly any field of study through an amazing number of citizen science opportunities. Citizen science projects can make for engaging patrol or troop activities, and may even tie into merit badges Scouts are working on individually (they should make their counsellor aware of these opportunities). SciStarter.com is a great place to begin: SciStarter will bring together the millions of citizen scientists in the world; the thousands of potential projects offered by researchers, organizations, and companies; and the resources, products, and services that enable citizens to pursue and enjoy these activities....

Michael Smith shared this coywolf infographic with me on Google plus. The coywolf is a remarkable new hybrid mix of western coyote and eastern wolf. The coywolf’s range is growing and they are thriving in urban and suburban areas. It’s thought this new hybrid species first appeared early in the last century in Ontario, Canada’s Algonquin Provincial Park. We may have a coywolf (almost certainly a coyote) living quite nearby in our little town here in Southeastern Pennsylvania, there’s an ideal patch of habitat and I know people have seen a creature there that meets the description....

Set aside your paperwork, take a moment, and join me on this six minute retreat into the lakes and forests of New Brunswick, Canada with painter Réjean Roy. Le Peintre, le canot et la forêt (Painter, canoeing and forest) records Roy’s traditional canoeing kit (note the wanigan, canvas portage pack, trapper tent, canvas covered canoe, and tin stove). I’m more nervous releasing this video than any paintings I’ve done. It may be because this little video hasn’t been produced in a professional manner – I am not a videographer, but a painter....

One of my goals for summer camp was sharpening my skills at identifying and understanding rocks and minerals. I started by reading ‘Rocks and Minerals’, one of a series of handbooks published by the Smithsonian Institution. Author Chris Pellant explains the basics and offers a guide for identifying rocks and minerals with excellent photographs and explanations that, after a bit of practice, I learned to use to identify the samples I found....

I’m pretty confident with identifying trees and wildflowers, even with a lot of the understory plants we encounter but I draw a blank when it comes to ferns (the best I can do is ‘that’s a fern!’). To increase my fern identifying skills I purchased the Fern Finder before we left for summer camp this year. The Fern Finder is one of a series of books published by Nature Study Guild Publishers that uses a ‘dichotomous key’ leading the reader through a number of steps to identifying a specific plant....

I’ve spent some time reviewing the new Outdoor Ethics materials published by the BSA. Outdoor ethics have always been a part of Scouting. While the basic ethical imperatives have remained constant, our application and interpretation of them has changed and evolved over time. One constant is the outdoor code: As an American, I will do my best to— Be clean in my outdoor manners. Be careful with fire. Be considerate in the outdoors....

Taking Scouts caving is a popular, adventurous and exciting activity, but it’s not something to approach casually. The National Speleological Society, A volunteer organization dedicated to the study, exploration, and conservation of caves has made it clear that untrained, unprepared cave explorers endanger themselves and cause irreversible damage to fragile cave environments. Access to wild caves is appropriately limited, but there are commercial caves that offer adventurous ‘wet’ tours in addition to their more tame walkthroughs....

Here are my favorite astronomy tools for showing Scouts the night sky. Get out and look at the stars the next clear night you are out camping, you don’t have to be an expert or particularly knowledgeable to have a great time finding constellations and doing a little stargazing. With a little research you’ll now when and where to look for satellites or meteor showers. It’s worth staying up late or getting up early to see them if you can....

This composite of 70 exposures shows the trail of the ISS passing through the night sky in Germany. (Till Credner via NASA) Satellite spotting is great fun! With a little preparation you can hunt for satellites on your next camping trip. Whenever our Scouts are looking at constellations and finding the north star someone usually thinks they may have glimpsed a satellite passing overhead. On a dark, clear night satellites reflect sunlight back to us and become visible....

If you are travelling in bear country follow these ten ways to avoid bears: Keep your cooking areas and sleeping areas separate (100 yards or so is the rule of thumb). Hang food and items with strong odors (ie, toothpaste, bug repellent, soap, etc.) at least 10 ft above the ground or use airtight, bear-proof containers. Don’t wear clothing with cooking or food odors to bed. Be clean – wash dishes, and people in the cooking area well away from the sleeping area....

Supplement your B.S.A. Hazardous Weather Training with the free National Weather Service’s SKYWARN training. (Rick Jameson suggested this after reading Ten Causes of Scouting Disasters in the Wild – thanks Rick!) To obtain critical weather information, NOAA’s National Weather Service established SKYWARN®, a volunteer program with nearly 290,000 trained severe weather spotters. These volunteers help keep their local communities safe by providing timely and accurate reports of severe weather to the National Weather Service....

Take this sky tour infographic with you and the next time you are out camping take a few minutes to conduct a tour of the circumpolar constellations. You’ll learn two methods of finding the north star and how to identify the constellations along with some astronomy facts and folklore. Whenever we have good seeing conditions I try to take the time go through the visible constellations with Scouts, they get pretty good at identifying them once we’ve done it a few times....

Winter time is not ‘down time’ for nature study – there’s plenty happening in the natural world. Here’s questions you should be able to answer: Why does winter happen? The Earth’s axis is tilted at an angle of 23.5 degrees. The varying amounts of sunlight around the Earth during the year, creates the seasons. Winter in the northern hemisphere happens when the north pole is tilted away from the sun and the sunlight is at a shallow angle because the sun is lower in the sky....

Can you identify the major species of trees in your area? What’s the difference between a tree and a shrub? How do we use the lumber or fruits of from a specific tree? How did Native Americans and our ancestors use them? Why do leaves change color?. I have always been fascinated with trees and the stories they can tell. We spend a lot of time in the forest ; much of this country was covered with a dense forest canopy almost impenetrable to sunlight....

Can you locate the north star? What three stars make up the summer triangle? Have you ever seen a meteor shower? Any active Scout Troop will spend many nights under clear skies away from city lights – ideal conditions for observing the stars. We try to include an observing session on our weekend campouts. With a rudimentary understanding of astronomy and a few good sources of information any Scouter can lead an observing session....

The outdoors is par excellence the school for observation and for realizing the wonders of a wondrous universe. It opens to the mind appreciation of the beautiful that lies before it day by day… The study of nature brings into a harmonious whole the question of the infinite, the historic, and the microscopic as part of the Great Creator’s work. Baden Powell Going into the world of nature without knowing the names of the plants and animals that call it home is like walking into a room of people whom you have never met....

A recent study links simple ‘green time’ (time spent outdoors in nature; and for the purposes of this particular study expansive green fields or lawns) to milder symptoms for children with Attention Deficit and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorders (ADD, ADHD). Some complain that we over-diagnose and over- medicate children with ADD or ADHD; some doubt that it is even real. Ask a parent whose child is challenged with these disorders – it’s very real and, thankfully, treatable....