TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Eagle Project A Peace Offering In Fowl Dispute

ADVERTISEMENT

By Cheryl  Bentley | The Suncoast News

Published: January 26, 2008

James Garrison came early and stayed late. That's what often happens to leaders.
In his Eagle Scout community project last month, 17-year-old James arrived an hour before his volunteers and closed up shop an hour after everyone else had called it a day.

In December, James organized and led an effort to create additional wildlife habitat around Dunedin's Lake Paloma. The small lake is near San Christopher Drive and Bayshore Boulevard, northwest of the downtown area.

The project attracted 39 volunteers. James got this high turnout in part because he has helped other Scouts with their Eagle projects in the past, according to Gary Johnson.

Johnson is scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 422, which meets at of Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. James is a member of Troop 422.

"He's always been there for everybody's Eagle Scout project," Johnson noted.
"Everybody realized that guy was there for them, and they were there for him."

James' project served as the peace maker between fans of the Muscovy ducks and aficionados of native waterfowl.

Opinion split

With their boisterous, life-of-the-party personalities, Muscovies divided visitors to Lake Paloma into two camps: those who loved the noisy Muscovies and those who wanted them destroyed to give native species a chance to reclaim the lake.

Many foes of feral Muscovy ducks are often turned off by their aggressive begging for food and messy personal habits.

In a win-win solution, James and his crew established native plants along the shore of Lake Paloma and installed three floating islands topped with native vegetation. That would, the teen reasoned, encourage native species to nest and provide protection for them while also allowing the Muscovies to remain.

"Muscovies nest on the ground and in trees," James explained. "The problem was there was no where for native species to nest."

For more than five hours, James directed his crew in cleaning up the lake, planting native plants and installing three floating islands.

He divided the volunteers into construction and planting crews.

When the planting crew finished quicker than expected, James did what any savvy leader does: He found other tasks for them to do.

"You've got to know how to keep people busy," he said in the tone of a seasoned pro.
That meant assigning them to two rounds of collecting garbage around the lake while the construction crew was at work on the floating islands.

Having started planning for the project a year ago, James left nothing to chance.
He researched suitable plants and ultimately chose pickerel reed, bulrush, Canna lily and arrowhead.

He also did his homework when it came to making the islands.
The city recommended using interlocking foam mats with holes for plants for two of them.

For the other one, James went through about 40 designs before finally settling on marine pressure-treated lumber as a frame for 55-gallon drums that were used for buoyancy. That was topped with coconut fiber as nesting material.

So far, the project is working, reported Barbara Kanehl, who lives across the street from the lake.

"It seems to have encouraged more birds," she observed.

Island retreat

She recently has seen an egret, wood stork and turtle sharing an island.

The city footed the $2,000 for materials but nevertheless, it saved about $3,000 in labor costs because of the scouts' free labor, Parks Superintendent Art Finn estimated.
Finn assigned James the project.

"It was very professional and well organized," said Finn. "It was one of the better Eagle projects I've had."

Finn ought to know. Since becoming parks superintendent in 1990, he has handled an average of four Eagle Scout projects a year involving his area.

He lists numerous ways the scouts have benefited city recreation areas, from sprucing up Hammock Park and building homes for small animals there, to planting vegetation for wildlife between the fairways at St. Andrews Link Golf Course.

On the edge

Today, James stands at the edge of the lake. He is tall, polite and serious, but occasionally he allows an impish grin to escape.

James, a student in the veterinary science program at Tarpon Springs High School, is the son of Joe and Robert Garrison, of Dunedin.

What did he learn from the project?

"How hard it is to get everything organized and to keep people focused," he replies.

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT