RIVER TALK

Of Scouting and preservation

BY SCOTT RANDO
Posted 8/24/22

During the second week of August, the Ten Mile River Scout Camps Alumni Association held a reunion for past campers, leaders and other people involved with the camp. This year’s get-together was named “TMR95,” as it has been 95 years since Franklin D. Roosevelt, chairman of the Greater New York Councils—Boy Scouts of America (GNYCBSA), first took the initial steps in founding the camp in 1927.

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RIVER TALK

Of Scouting and preservation

Posted

During the second week of August, the Ten Mile River Scout Camps Alumni Association held a reunion for past campers, leaders and other people involved with the camp. This year’s get-together was named “TMR95,” as it has been 95 years since Franklin D. Roosevelt, chairman of the Greater New York Councils—Boy Scouts of America (GNYCBSA), first took the initial steps in founding the camp in 1927. 

I was a Scout in the mid-1950s and attended summer camp at Ten Mile River, and remembered how pristine and wild it looked. After much procrastination over attending a reunion and being busy over the years, I finally decided to attend this year’s reunion. Aside from rekindling some old memories and seeing some new activity additions during some hikes, I got a chance to talk to a lot of past and present scouters.

One of the things discussed during our gathering was a plan to protect the lands of the scout camp from development. In a press release dated May 16 of this year, the Conservation Fund announced a plan to acquire part of the camp; here is part of that press release: “This transaction is the first of a two-phase sale that will secure approximately 9,400 acres of the Ten Mile River Scout Reservation, which is one of the largest privately-owned and unprotected properties within the Delaware River watershed. The intended outcome will allow the Scouts to maintain ownership of their four camp facilities while preventing the larger landscape from being fragmented or developed. The Scouts will continue to use the property acquired by The Conservation Fund for their charitable purposes under an agreement.”

GNYCBSA will maintain ownership of 2,100 acres, where the existing four summer camps are located. The scouts will also have access to hiking trails that lie on the recently acquired land. The Conservation Fund will study future uses for the land, uses that will conserve and prevent forest fragmentation, such as hiking, hunting and fishing.

The people I talked to were in favor of the purchase plan, as it both preserves land use by Ten Mile River Scout camps for scouting programs, and at the same time conserves this large tract of pristine land. 

I had revisited Ten Mile River in 2014 for the Upper Delaware Bioblitz. The final report for this bioblitz shows that 884 unique species were found, and 123 of those species were first-occurrences for Sullivan County. 

These numbers show the value of the habitat present on this land, indicating that the Conservation Fund’s project is a win-win situation for all involved.

ten mile river, preservation, tmr95

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