SHORELINE

It has taken nine months for the north shore of Ronald Bog to look the way it does today.

Gone are the over-10-foot tall blackberry bushes and scattered pieces of trash that once covered a passerby’s view of the area along North 175th Street and Meridian Avenue North. Now one student who helped to lead the area’s transformation hopes others will help finish the project.

“We’re looking for as many (plants) as we can get,” Nicholaus Smith, 15, a member of Boy Scout Troop #309 said.

Smith began working on restoring the bog’s shore when another scout in his troop started the process as his Eagle Scout Project last fall. After he and other volunteers realized there was still more work to do, Smith decided to make it into his own Eagle Scout project.

“Between two Eagle Scout projects we have provided over 250 hours in removing blackberries, securing the ground with protective wood chip and planting native plants,” Smith said.

The area could still use more native plants though and that’s where plant donations would help, he said. Those interested in helping complete the work can donate any of the desired plants and contact him so a time and place can be arranged to pick them up, Smith added.

Eagle Scout projects typically take between 60 and 100 hours of service to accomplish, according to Smith’s father, Mike. It’s the scout’s responsibility to organize the project, lead other volunteers and see the project through to completion, he said.

For Smith, organizing the project involved meeting with the Shoreline Parks and Recreation board for approval and organizing and leading a team of fellow scout and adult volunteers during two work parties in July. The final step toward earning his Eagle Scout will be an official board of review sometime in the next month.

“An Eagle Scout project is about planning, carrying out the work and seeing it through to completion for the betterment of the community or environment,” Mike said. “It’s been a good lesson for the troop.”

The project has taken plenty of dedication, according to the Shorewood High School student but he’s glad to have had the experience.

“It feels really good to know that I have done something to help my community,” he said.