Boy Scout Troop 325
Scoutmaster Minute
The Outdoor Code
March 20, 2007
Larry Polyak, Scoutmaster

Lately, I have been going over the Boy Scout Joining requirements with our newest Scouts. Among other things, they are required to know the Scout Oath (you have just recited that), the Scout Law (you have just recited that), the Scout Motto (you should know that - Be Prepared) and the Scout slogan (you should know that too - Do a good turn daily). One of the last things required for the rank of Scout is to "Understand and agree to live by the Outdoor Code". How many of you can recite the Outdoor Code? Not many I'll bet. So I thought it would be good to review and remind all of you of Scouting's Outdoor Code. It is as follows:

As an American I will do my best to: Be clean in my outdoor manners; Be careful with fire; Be considerate in the outdoors; and Be conservation minded.

These require some further explanation:

Be clean in my outdoor manner:

This means that you should treat the outdoors as a heritage, something to be passed on to future generations.
I like to use the analogy of a vintage car or a fine antique. Something that you can use and be proud of, but that you will be extremely careful with so that you do not reduce its value.

Be careful with fire

Build fires only where they are appropriate and allowed by law. Sometimes you have to check with local park services. In times of high fire danger, you may not be able to make a fire even if you could before. When we when to Mt. Diablo last year, they would not allow wood fires, but they allowed us to use compressed logs becasue they do not generate embers the way regular wood does. And guess what - we still had an excellent campifre.
When you are finished using a fire, make sure it is cold out. Smoldering doesn't count. You know that a fire is out cold, when you can put your hand in it. Leave a clean fire ring, or remove all evidence of your fire.

Be considerate in the outdoors

Don't leave trash around. In fact, pick up trash from others that you find. Use low-impact methods of hiking and camping. There is an organization called "Leave no Trace" which goes into detail about this. And in fact I have some more information on this that I will be giving to our scouts who are going on the backpacking outing next month.

Be conservation minded

 

Learn how to practice good conservation of soil, waters, forests, minerals, grasslands, wildlife, and energy, and urge others to do the same. Remember at the kayaking outing last week? Our guide told us to stay at least 50 feet away from the group of sea otters. We can admire them from a distance but we shouldn't disturb them. Of course I guess Wendall the sea otter was't listening. He was the one that came right up to us.
Conserving energy doesn't just apply when you are outside, but around the home as well becasue things you do at home can affect the environment.

 

For this last one, "Be conservation minded", I have an excellent example of someone here with our troop, Troop 325, who has excelled at this. He has learned how to conserve energy in ways other people have not thought of, and is urging others to do so as well. He is someone we should all be proud of. But - you will have to wait until next week to hear more about that.

Thank you for listening.