SCOUTING FOR CLEAN WATERWAYS

Twenty-nine local scouts attend the Scouting for Clean Waterways Ambassador training program in November at the Brinton Environmental Center. They received training and experiential education to take back to their local communities and plan their own waterway cleanup. CONTRIBUTED

New Program Sees Scouts Nabbing Marine Debris Across The Country

By the end of 2023, the Boy Scouts of America Sea Base hopes to have a 2,000-pound pile of trash in the middle of its Lower Matecumbe Key campus.

The pile of bottle caps, fishing line, derelict traps and other marine debris will serve as a monument to a job well done. According to NOAA, there are between 20 million and 1.8 billion pieces of plastic along U.S. coastlines, with an estimated 8 million metric tons entering the ocean every year. To address this issue, in 2022, Sea Base founded the Scouting for Clean Waterways initiative, a nationwide effort to reduce marine and waterway debris.

Since Sea Base – the only Scout Centre of Excellence for Nature, Environment and Sustainability (SCENES) in the United States – was established in the 1980s, the scouts have taken an active role in education, conservation and restoration of the marine environment. Alongside sailing, kayaking and scuba diving, coral restoration with the Brinton Environmental Center, shark tagging, fish counts and debris clean-up projects are part of the adventure that the teenage scouts from across the country have during their week at Sea Base.

“We can encourage young people in that way, get them involved and change their conservation mindset, and then we cloak all of that in adventure, so at the end of the day, instead of them just saying, ‘Yeah, I’ve learned a bunch of stuff,’ they say, ‘I had the greatest adventure, and, by the way, I made a difference,’” said Tim Stanfill, director of program operations. “It changes the mindset of, ‘I went somewhere to learn something’ to ‘And I learned it and was cool,’ to ‘Holy cow, I had the greatest adventure of my life. And by the way, I did all of this really positive stuff, and I can talk about it.’”

For years, Sea Base has partnered with local and nationwide efforts and organizations like PADI Aware, NOAA’s Goal: Clean Seas Florida Keys, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection and Florida State Parks for debris removal projects. The new Scouting for Clean Waterways program unites all the debris clean-up projects.

With the goal of removing 2,000 pounds of trash in 2023, scouts attending Sea Base will learn how to spot and safely remove marine debris while diving as a part of PADI’s Dive Against Debris. In 2022, they removed over 1,000 pounds. In addition, participants in the Keys Adventure Sailing Program will spend part of the week this summer at Lignumvitae Key Botanical State Park, kayaking in the mangroves, snorkeling in the sea grass and removing debris.

“By the time we get all the way around the island, we will have to restart, unfortunately, because more trash will wash ashore. It always does,” Stanfill said. “So, it’ll be one of those things I don’t think that will ever win. But we can create the best environment we can and by educating long-term, we have the opportunity to do that.”

Scouting for Clean Waterways also expands the efforts nationwide through the Ambassador Award. The goal is to allow all 15,000 scouts that attend Sea Base every year the chance to earn the SCENE Ambassador Award by participating in a waterway, shoreline or marine debris or litter removal project while at Sea Base and then, after returning home, educating others and planning a clean-up in their own communities. Any scout who participates in these cleanups back home can earn the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) SCENE Award.

“The purpose of the awards program is to get as many people across the country cleaning up as many waterways as possible. That’s just the incentive when you’re 12, 13, 14, 15 years old,” Stanfill said. “It’s pretty cool to have an incentive and to go out and do something when someone tells you about the amazing experience they had at Sea Base, and then they say, ‘Hey, by the way, you can be part of my adventure.’”

And besides the award and a great adventure, the scouts leave with an ownership and a recognition of the impact they’ve made too.

Scouts remove 160 pounds of fabric, 157 pounds of plastic, 74 pounds of wood, 42 pounds of metals, 33 pounds of glass and 14 pounds of foam from the shoreline during the Ambassador training program.

“We’re really building people with character that are prepared to assume leadership responsibility,” Stanfill said. “And that is immensely powerful, especially as we get to tackle a lot of these major issues.”

One young woman from Knoxville, Tennessee who attended Sea Base several years ago decided to pursue environmental law after experiencing the underwater environment and recognizing its need for protection.

“I keep joking to my friends that I’m saving the world, but, you know, that’s not entirely false,” another young man said in an interview with Sea Base. More information on Sea Base is at bsaseabase. org. More information about how to help monitor marine debris is at marinedebris.noaa.gov/collectingmarine-debris-data.