Forest Service facilitating Boy Scout service project

Note to Cook County merchants for your spring ordering: stock up on candy bars and Gatorade. The Order of the Arrow is coming, and that means 500-700 Boy Scouts will descend on the community with lots of hunger and thirst as they tackle several trail projects on U.S. Forest Service (USFS) land in Grand Marais, on Maple Hill, and in Tofte.

The Order of the Arrow is Scouting’s national honor society recognizing Boy Scouts who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives. Each year they gather from around the nation to do good deeds, and Cook County will be the lucky beneficiary of several service projects for a week or two next June.

Projects to be completed include work on the Superior Hiking Trail on Maple Hill near the Lindskog Road, which needs some work on infrastructure that was constructed in the mid-1980s; work on a bike trail on U.S. Forest Service land near Pincushion; the addition of 10 miles of mountain bike trail to the Sugarbush trail system in Tofte; and improvements to a campsite in the Superior National Forest Gunflint District.

TheScouts will set up tents behind Cook County High School and rent out bathroom and kitchen facilities from the school. “They told us to stay off the football field!” Gunflint District Assistant Ranger Steve Schug told the county board on Tuesday, September 14, 2010. Theywill pay the school for bus transportation as well.

The event will be managed with the same kind of incident command system used during forest fires, Schug said. “The logistical aspects of pulling this project off will be significant,” he said.

According to Gunflint District Ranger Dennis Neitzke, the last place they hit, the Order of the Arrow depleted all the candy bars in town. Schug said he has been told that Holiday and Super America could expect to sell out of every bottle of Gatorade they have the first night the Scouts are here as well.

In addition to promoting outdoor adventure and brotherhood, TheOrder of the Arrow embraces the ideals of servant leadership in developing leaders of character.