Remember the belt loops are for the scout doing their best to learn about the sport or academic activity, and by putting the new techniques to practice with fellow scouts, in their community, or working with an adult.

1. Explain what natural resources are and why it's important to protect and conserve them.

2. Make a poster that shows and explains the food chain. Describe to your den what happens if the food chain becomes broken or damaged.

3. Learn about an endangered species. Make a report to your den that includes a picture, how the species came to be endangered, and what is being done to save it.

Ways to Make a Difference

• Put out nesting materials for birds, such as short pieces of yarn, string, or dried tall grasses.

• Place a bird bath in your yard. Keep it clean and filled with fresh water.

• Put out a bird feeder, or several feeders that have different foods for different kinds of birds.

• Make of buy a hummingbird feeder.

• Build a bat house. One small brown bat can eat 600 mosquitoes an hour!

• Grow flowering plants such as asters, zinnia, or milkweed to provide nectar for butterflies.

• Leave standing dead and dying trees in an area unless they pose a hazard to humans or property. Dead, dying, and hollow trees and logs on the ground provide homes for many species of wildlife.

• Write letters to newspapers or local governement representatives on environmental issues.

The Balance of Nature

Conservation of wildlife is important because of the idea of the balance of nature. Animals, plants, and their habitats are connected through an environment that supplies what they need to live. This is called an ecosystem. The ecosystem is balanced when all the parts of the community are present: animals are able to find food and have healthy young.

If you lose a part of the balance, the entire system can suffer. For instance, in some parts of the country, people thought that wolves threatened their livestock, so they killed the wolves. But without these predators, the population of deer increased too quickly. In new housing developments, you now can see deer grazing in people's backyards and eating shrubs and flowers. The deer also don't have as much natural habitat because of all the building.

You are part of the balance of nature too. Think of how you are a part of your ecosystem, and what you can do to help preserve it.

Resources

Visit Visit the library, a natural history museum, a game preserve, and any federal, state, and local agencies involved in fish and game and wildlife conservation.

Wildlife Forever
10365 W. 70th. St.
Eden Prairie, MN 55344
Phone:    612.833.1522
Fax:    612.833.0804

Web Site:    http://www.wildlifeforever.org

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Department of the Interior
Room 3445
1849 C St. N.W.
Washington, DC 20240
Web Site:    http://www.fws.gov

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
401 M St. S.W.
Washington, DC 20460

Web Site:    http://www.epa.gov

U.S Forest Service Natural Resources and Conservation Education Program

Web Site:    http://www.fs.fed.us/outdoors/nrce

The Conservation Education (CE) program helps people of all ages understand and appreciate our country's natural resources and how to conserve those resources for future generations.

National Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program
8925 Leesburg Pike
Vienna, VA 22184
Phone:    703.790.4434

Web Site:    http://www.nwf.org

The National Wildlife Federation began the Backyard Wildlife Habitat program in 1973 to acknowledge and encourage individuals who garden for the benefit of wildlife.