Snellville Boy Scout Conservation Project is Family Effort

Snellville Boy Scout Bobby Nice and his family have been hard at work on his William T. Hornaday conservation project at the Dunwoody Nature Center in Dunwoody, Georgia for nearly the past 1.5 years. Nice, a 9th grade honor student at Georgia Cyber Academy, is a star-rank scout in Troop 548 who has invested nearly 300 individual hours in his project, to date, by completing several different conservation-related activities at Dunwoody Nature Center. Members of his family who have also invested time and effort into his project have included his father, John Nice, Jr., of Lawrenceville; grandfather, Bruce Babcock, of Snellville; and myself, his mother.

The focus of Nice's project includes removing and managing invasive plant species, such as Chinese wisteria, Chinese privet, and English ivy, from its grounds. Nice also completes additional conservation-related activities for his Hornaday project. He built five bird houses, with the guidance and supervision of his grandfather. Nice also regularly fills bird baths and bird feeders at Dunwoody Nature Center.

On his first troop workday for his project, Nice and members of his scout troop, including his father and myself, mulched two trails to help prevent erosion. For this effort, Nice and his troop earned the Conservation Good Turn Award, an award that recognizes scout troops for their efforts in completing a conservation-related community service project of at least 25 hours. On his second project workday, Nice, his father, and myself planted 60 Autumn ferns on Dunwoody Nature Center's grounds to replace some of the invasive plants removed and help conserve soil.

Nice has earned additional awards by working on his Hornaday conservation project, including the Complete Angler Award, World Conservation Award, and Keep America Beautiful Hometown USA Award. The focus of these awards is earning merit badges in areas related to conservation, the environment, and citizenship. Of the many merit badges Nice has earned, 13 of them are conservation-related. Nice is currently working on earning his National Outdoor Award in Conservation.

Work on his Hornaday conservation project has helped Nice gain a greater appreciation for nature and the environment, and has helped further develop his interest in science. Nice is interested to protect natural resources, stating, "I want to help." He is also considering a future science-related career and stated, "I might be a biologist."

Nice's project, expected to be completed in September 2017, currently totals more than 550 hours of work by each person involved in its support and execution. To date, Nice has removed and managed approximately 1,000 invasive plants from the grounds of Dunwoody Nature Center. Once completed, Nice will be eligible to receive the William T. Hornaday Badge. He is looking forward to fulfilling his goal of earning this award as he continues to work toward becoming an eagle scout.