Here’s a game to help Scouts with requirements that have a number of things to remember or identify For example First Class rank requirement 6: Identify or show evidence of at least ten kinds of native plants found in your community. For this particular requirement you’ll need to know how to identify ten native plants. Not a very daunting task with the internet at your disposal. Try Googling ‘native plants’ and your state and county....
If, when in the forest, we know the names of the trees we are more at home. My well-worn Golden Guide to Trees is a reliable source of information for tree identification. I have a couple of other guides but reach for the Golden Guide first because I find it easier to identify things from illustrations rather than photographs. The guide features over 730 species of trees grouped in 76 families....
Poison ivy (toxicodendron radicans) is the most common of the urushiol producing plants in the eastern U.S. Contact with urushiol oil is the substance that causes an allergic rash in 90% of the population. Even a tiny amount (1 nanogram, a billionth of a gram) of sticky, resin-like urushiol oil will case a skin reaction. 1/4 ounce of the potent oil would be enough to cause a rash on the entire population of the earth!...
We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes – something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters’ paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view....
(picture from Cool Tools) Cool Tools featured green laser pointers a few months ago. Mine arrived a few weeks ago and it is, indeed, a cool tool. The clearly visible beam of an astronomy grade laser pointer at night is ideal for pointing out stars to a group of Scouts. During the day the green dot is bight even in direct sunlight – handy for pointing out distant locations or features on a nature hike or as an emergency signal....
Scoutmasters may think that the most reliable predictor of foul weather is their Troop’s camping schedule; as soon as the cars are loaded on a Friday night the sky darkens and the wind picks up. Access to the finest weather observing and forecasting technology is now available all over the web. My choice is The Weather Underground a rich collection of useful information presented in a simple, clear manner; Daily forecasts and Radar Maps...