Atlanta Girl Scouts Go Green

Seventy Girl Scouts from Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta, Inc. gathered at Camp Pine Acres to work on various patches aimed at outdoor education during the Cadette Outdoor Interest Project Trek. With the direction of Erthnxt’s: One Planet, One Future: Trees for the 21st Century, 50 long leaf pine saplings were planted across the campgrounds.

Erthnxt has a mission of planting one billion trees worldwide. Their program, Trees for the 21st Century, is a tree-planting program for children ages six to 18, involving science-based learning, tree-planting and ongoing stewardship activities. This was a natural fit to go along with the council’s Outdoor Interest Project Trek which encouraged the girls to earn patches such as Eco-Action, All About Birds and Wildlife.

“When I learned about the program I thought it would be a good opportunity for the girls to learn more about the environment,” Camp Pine Acres camp director, Erin Steill, said about how the Girl Scouts became involved. “They learned what they can do to make a difference in their own neighborhoods and how to educate other people about the benefits of environmentalism.”

“We learned that people need to take better care of our trees,” says 12-year-old Girl Scout Cadette, Taylor, one of the girls who participated in the Outdoor Interest Project. “If we keep cutting down trees to build than our planet will be sickly looking and start to rot.”

Along with planting trees, the girls learned about the benefits trees provide us and what can harm trees, a subject that hits close to home for Camp Pine Acres. In the late 1990’s, the camp was almost devastated by pine bark beetles, a natural predator to the pine trees located at the camp. In order to save the healthy trees, all infected trees and any that stood within 10-feet of them had to be removed.

“Planting the pine trees at Camp Pine Acres will help with erosion and replenish the trees that were destroyed due to the pine bark beetles,” Erin said. “The growth of the long leaf pine trees will also provide shade and shelter to the once open area for deer and other animals on the property as well as the campers!”

For more information: www.girlscoutsofgreateratlanta.org