mmhardy

Not seeing a lot of activity and chatter for what experienced HA Scouters call the most rugged and remote base in the BSA system; Northern Tier which is bounded by BWCA and Quetico Provincial Park. So who is going? With Jambo, the NT staff tells us that a very limited number of slots are open this year. I have two boys that are going up as Charlie Guides.

Thanks for the feedback. We are fortuante to live pretty close to Canada so our troop travels over at least once per year for DIBC. We also go over to enjoy some great camp areas such as the Pinery and Point Pelee. If you educate yourself on the border requirements, crossing is a snap. I've had all the documents in my hand and Canada Customs, seeing I was prepared, just waived me through. Being in uniform, including the adults in a must.

I am surprised that BSA is allowing the use of PWC in their programs. I applaud the educational aspect of teaching the use of personal watercraft (Jet Skis) safely.

Is BSA Too Risk Adverse? Scouts Canada sure isnt.

Check out the video cobbled together from snaps from 2007 Dorchester International Brotherhood Camporee. There is a lot of activity Ive never seen in the States. If youre a troop near the Great Lakes youre within a days drive to a great event held annual on Mothers Day weekend.

Ive chuckled as I scanned this thread. There is some kind of odd ball perception that as soon as a boy puts on a uniform he is an expert in the outdoors. Scouting is a turn-key youth program and the adult volunteers that make it up many times are equally inexperienced in outdoor manners. My 20 year old son is a guide at NT. He mentioned that it takes several days for a unit to understand the courtesy and nuances of water trail manners during portages.

I have a son who has just served is second season as a Charley Guide at for NT at both BWCA and Quetico areas. He is a Triple Crown holder. Needless to say the guides up in Minnesota and Canada have built up a true esprit-de-corps as this area has been in general operation since 1923. My son mentioned that this year was the NT busiest season ever. I asked why and was told point blank that Philmont is now nothing but a dog track. He said youre never more than a days gentle walk away from an attraction. (

Sounds like a perfect activity for adults with nothing better to do.

A successful troop will widen the net of the GOBN by recognizing motivated talent and bringing them into the fold. Fresh faces bring fresh ideas thus a dynamic program with lots of energy.

Those Scouts who use their own gear tend to learn the responsibility to care for it.

Opps...Gunny hit on the LNT idea early on.

Its interesting that of all the posts on this topic I've not seen any mention of Leave No Trace principles. While identical tents and gear look nice in the typical parking lot set up of a Camporee (and Jamboree) it has no place out in the field.

Blending in to the natural surroundings with little impact should be a gold standard by which a good campsite is judged.

Hosted by FastRoot, Chicago? What platform is this on? Looks like its running on an older .NET platform. (Microsoft IIS)

Its a moot point now. The boy has his Eagle.

He had to see it though the State Supreme Court. Someone sued.

(Maybe the plaintiff thought the statue wasnt a worthy Eagle Project)

Actually I disagree with all the nah-sayers. Its a great project. Since this project is done and the boy has is Eagle, the Great Salt Lake Council feels it was a worthy Eagle project too. Remember that all projects must have council review and sign off.

The statue was not done for the direct benefit of the BSA. The statue was built in a public park. The work commemorates the ideals and 100th anniversary of Scouting. It does not benefit the BSA.

Ill bet your going to see a vast majority of Scouts and Scouters sporting Cell Phones and Blackberrys on their belt. They are going to be taking pictures, posting to their Facebook pages and keeping in contact with their peeps. Patrol Leaders are going to keep in contact with his guys and agree to rendezvous so they can attend an event as a group. Someone lost?not any more. A quick call and they are back with the troop. Jambo land is huge, vast and a modern cell phone a great way to keep the guys together. Wish I had it back in 77. It seemed we were spending a huge amount of time keeping track of everyone.

Our council contingent troop is requiring all medical forms to be submitted in mid February. Is your council requiring the same? They give the rational is to review the documents. Thats about 6 months ahead of the event. Seems odd.

First, these are 14yo+ boys not the 11-12yo pups on their first summer camp. Most of them have used cell phones since they were in 7th grade.

My son had one at the last Jamboree. When the electrical accident happened with the Alaskan contingent my son used it to convey that everyone in the troop was ok. There were 6 boys from our home troop in the council contingent. For the better part of a day we were the only ones that knew the status of the troop. My instructions were: its a tool, Be Prepared, pack it, when not in use stow it, use it properly, keep it charged and try not to lose it.

Using words like forbidden when talking about communications with my boys is not showing due respect.

Producted on a budget of a "buck ninty-eight" and many bottle drives. Maybe it should be renamed "The Last Eagle Scout Project"

"A politician?" Its five states and a Canadian Provence. The $9B figure came from an op-ed piece in the Huron Daily Tribune written by Terry Brown State Rep for the 84th District of Michigan. Thats a combined figure of sports fishing and related boating industry.

Were making an effort CalicoPenn are you personally involved in this somehow?

To my loved Yellow Perch, Whitefish and Walleye, RIP...you will be missed.

To all the sportsmen and women who spend about $9 billion a year on boats, harbor fees, motel rooms, gas, food, and gear across the Great Lakes. It was a fine run since the 1900s; good bye.

To the few commercial fishing companies left that ply the waters for $7 billion in fresh fish; so long.

Ill be by the Bay Port Fish Company this summer, maybe next to stock up the freezer, take some pictures and wish Connie and Tod well. I will miss seeing the Argos and Osprey come into Caseville harbor with her holds full of whitefish.

Chicago wants its stinking canal openthus an era is about to end. My sons will remember this time...but their sons wont. So sad.

Im not so sure that the feelings against the Scouts by NPS Rangers is universal. At Boundry Waters and Quetico the Rangers on both sides of the boarder appreciate the tons of garbage that the boys bring back from BWCA. Not to mention the numerous times boys have added a lost or injured paddler.

Interesting write up by another person who actally lived through the alewive explosion.

"Profanity was not unknown as Lake Michigan shoreline residents and visitors reacted in 1967 to the nauseating stench from millions of dead alewives. But a four letter word few of them used - or even knew - was about to liven the lake lexicon and brighten its future: Coho! The alewife was the second of two Atlantic Ocean infiltrators which caused problems in the Great Lakes. The first was the parasitic sea lamprey, which had been the prime villain in the elimination of once-abundant Lake Michigan trout, and near elimination of whitefish. The trout and whitefish were natural predators which kept the populations of smaller fish in check. With the predators gone, smaller fish flourished. Alewives, ignored by lampreys because of their size, enjoyed a population explosion after the lampreys wiped out their natural enemies in the 1950s. Alewives comprised 17 percent of the Lake Michigan fish population in 1962. By 1967,the figure was 90 per cent - an estimated 175 billion alewives then in the lake. That's when the big die-off and subsequent stench occurred. The exact reason for the die-off is not known. It was blamed on everything from lightning to old age to overactive thyroid glands. Other explanations included sudden change in water temperature, lake pollution, lack of oxygen, starvation and overpopulation. Whatever the reason, the shoreline suddenly was a stinking mess, covered with millions of alewives. The obnoxious odor was too much even for those scavengers of the lake shores, the seagulls, who temporarily sought more pleasant 1ocales. Officials reacted to the outcries of residents and visitors. Congressmen called for studies, at Michigan City a crew of 108 Job Corpsmen established headquarters for a four-day shore cleanup, and the mayor even suggested the use of a flamethrower to cope with the alewife beach assault. But the alewife, easily public enemy number one to inhabitants of Lake Michigan communities, was to be a prime participant in a dramatic project to revive the lake as a sport fishery. That's where the coho came in. Researchers had found a lamprey-killing chemical in time to save the trout in Lake Superior. Before embarking on a trout-restocking program in Lake Michigan, fisheries officials logically decided to bring the lampreys under control. The only problem ensuing from that decision was that it gave alewives more predator-free time to feed, breed and multiply. Even before the alewife die-off occurred, visionary Michigan fisheries people had flown a million coho salmon eggs from Oregon to Michigan hatcheries to try what no one had yet done: establish a large-scale salmon fishery entirely in fresh water.

I want to correct a mis-statement made earlier by another post. Michigans re-introduction of COHO salmon in the mid 1960s was not to solely prop up a sports fishing industry, but to control the out of control population of the non native fish, the alewive. The alewives competed with the native perch and walleye for the same food source. If you were just about any beach in Michigan at that time you will remember the yearly die-offs of millions of stinking alewives. We use to have huge bonfires on the beach and burn them by the bushel. The use of the COHO is a success on many fronts. (cept they taste too fatty!)

My solution to the Asian carp is to put a bounty on them. At $5 a head Im sure our sport minded folk could put a serious dent in the population and it would provide a nice support package to many.

HICO_Eagle. The only debate is how much it will rise due to thermal expansion to temperature change when coupled with increased fresh water entering from glacier melt. One simplistic model shows that if the average sea surface temperature rises by 1.4C, sea levels will rise by about 6 inches.

Again this is a pure science and dollars and cents question. There is no question that the sea raise has already had an impact on the Gulf Coast, Florida Keys coral reefs, and beach erosion from Miami up through the Carolinas.

Digression...the current recession proved that Supply Side theory is dead. Those still clinging to this pass Reaganomics ideal are seeing the US economy reeling by foreign players who fully embrace and understand that Keynesian theory can be used as a form of economic warfare.

BrentAllen and HICO_Eagle. The rise in ocean levels is not up for debate. Is a dollars and cents issue that the US Government identified in a paper from FEMA in 1991 Projected Impact of Relative Sea Level Rise on the National Flood Insurance Program and an EPA piece from 1989 entitled The Potential Effects of Global Climate Change on the United States. Report to Congress. Appendix B: Sea Level Rise. This has been a topic for over 20 years.

Whats going on now is corrective action is gearing up that will not be easy to digest. It will be a shock to the system and for many, a change in the way we live. However left unchecked the impact would be a civilazation changer.no more Mardi Gras.