January 26, 2005
Boy Scouts restore waterfowl homes
Members of Troop 229 brave freezing winter weather to refurbish wood duck boxes
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Boy Scouts from Troop 229 helped area wood duck families recently, refurbishing their digs for the fowl's spring return.
Heading out into the freezing cold a week ago Sunday, the boys and nine adults hiked into the Grand Traverse County Nature Education Reserve along the Boardman River. Taking a path into a remote area, the boys located a dozen boxes and cleaned out 11 of them.
In some cases, they kayaked or carefully crossed frozen portions of the Boardman River to reach a house. One house they spotted had fallen down but was inaccessible; they will attend to it in the spring.
The scouts found evidence that many of the nesting boxes, which the troop either installed or refurbished last January, had been used. One house showed evidence of being a waystation for an owl after the wood ducks vacated, with pieces of mice inside.
The scouts also made small repairs and put in fresh cedar chips.
"We checked for feathers to see if they were being used, two of them were not used," said Adam Jordan, a ninth-grade student at Traverse City East Junior High and a scout for nine years.
Despite the extreme cold, winter is the optimal time to work on the houses because they are usually uninhabited.
"It is always kind of interesting to have to chop through ice while in a kayak," joked Dave Andrews, scoutmaster for the troop, which is based at the East Bay Township Fire Station. "The water is warm when you fall in, at least compared to the air temperature."
The scouts completed this service project to keep a promise they made to fellow scout Wes Jones. Jones, who moved with his Coast Guard family to New Orleans last year, asked his fellow scouts to maintain the wood duck houses. They readily agreed and kept their word on that frigid Sunday.
"We knew when we did the project it was something that would require periodic maintenance," said Andrews, whose son, David, 15, is a scout in the troop. "They are not something you want to put out there and have rot and fall down."
Last winter, Jones spearheaded the building and installation of six brand new houses and the repair of five more already in the reserve. This effort was Jones' Eagle Scout project and he subsequently earned the distinct rank reached by only four percent of scouts nationwide.
An avid fly fisherman, Jones loved spending time on the Boardman River. After deciding on the duck house project, Jones researched wood ducks, local habitats, optimal house size and features and best placement.
As required to earn the Eagle Scout rank, he generated community support and tapped local experts for help. He led a building effort to construct the new houses last January in the wood shop of the Coast Guard Air Station and later helped with installation.
"He really had an appreciation for nature and it just seemed like his time here was so short because his dad was in the Coast Guard," Andrews said. "But this was a way for him to give back to the community."
To prepare for the initial project, Jones and the other scouts retrieved the five existing houses in December 2003. They had to leave one of the houses because it had a wood duck living in it; the scouts refurbished that one on this trip.
The scouts of the small troop, which includes 12 boys, looked up to Jones, who was the troop's senior patrol leader for two years. The troop completed a number of high adventure trips together with Jones, including attending Sea Base in Florida in 2004 and a canoeing trip in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area in Ely, Minn., two years ago. They also performed service projects and camped around the region.
"He was a good leader, even though he was our age," said Jordan of Jones, who plans to accompany Troop 229 this summer on a high adventure trip to Isle Royal.