Local Girl Scouts Work to Keep the Bay Clean

This fall, local Girl Scouts will have more on their minds than selling the most Thin Mints. They'll also be focusing on cleaning up the environment.

In a partnership with area environmental organizations, local scouts are participating in efforts to monitor and clean up pollution in the San Francisco Bay.

The program, known as Girl Scouts Save the Bay, teams up girls age 6 to 17 with longstanding conservation groups like Save the Bay, Golden Gate Audubon and The Bay Institute.

"It definitely teaches environmental responsibility, and is a great way to teach science," said Jessica Bolger Voytek, spokesperson for Girl Scouts of San Francisco Bay Area.

Assessing habitat health, monitoring pollution law violations and educating community members about reducing water use are some of the program's key goals.

As an incentive, a "Save the Bay" patch can be earned by scouts who participate in multiple conservation activities.

Discover Your Watershed, one of the program's central components, involves the adoption of a local watershed by a troop.

To monitor the watershed, scouts take water samples and measure their dissolved oxygen content. The scouts also record observed plant and animal species, among other activities.

The program draws on the 29,000 girls and 19,000 adult volunteers in the Girl Scouts of San Francisco Bay Area and has a $2.3 million budget.

California Sen. Dianne Feinstein and prominent marine scientist Sylvia Earle co-chair the program's advisory council.

Factors like pollution and over-fishing have long affected the environmental health of the San Francisco Bay, environmental activists say.

According to The Bay Institute, development in the last 150 years has decimated many of the 750 species of native wildlife.

The same group says the problem continues today, as the bay has lost more than half of its native fish population since 2001.

Leaders of environmental organizations say their partnership with the Girl Scouts will draw more attention to residents' impact on the bay.

"It's a great opportunity to engage more people with the bay," said Save the Bay Education Director Jessica Parsons. "It helps them realize their day-to-day impact on this important resource."

Although many know the Girl Scouts best for their cookie sales, the organization's code of conduct underscores community service and natural conservancy as core principles.

"Caring about the environment has been with us since we were founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912," said national Girl Scouts spokesperson Marion Swan.

For example, Swan said Scouts participated in the 1970 Eco-Action program, a nationwide effort to clean up rivers and build new parks and trails.

Girl Scouts are not alone among youth organizations in their emphasis on conservation.

The Boy Scouts of America have an ecology and conservation requirement for most promotions and have participated in numerous reforestation and cleanup efforts over the years, said spokesperson Pat Scherer.

Swan said she hopes the Girl Scouts' conservation efforts will update the group's traditional image.

"We have to make sure to remain relevant to the girls of today," she said.

Tags: