Conservation Project

In 1938, Waite Phillips donated the first tract of what would become Philmont Scout Ranch to the Boy Scouts of America. Prior to that gift and even Phillips’ ownership, that same land had been inhabited for thousands of years by Ute, Comanche, Pueblo, and Jicarilla Apache peoples. As American colonization began in the 1800s, and as mining, logging, and ranching industrialized the landscape, the high desert environment began to experience use of an unprecedented intensity. Over the past 80+ years, Phillips’ original gift and subsequent multi-thousand-acre acquisitions have come to host over one million scouts camping, hiking, and horse-back riding. Intense land use of the last 200 years has not occurred without an impact to the local ecosystem and landscape. Phillips envisioned that scouts have the opportunity to give back to the Ranch by working to preserve its integrity as a natural and recreational resource. Since its beginning, scouts visiting Philmont have been able to preserve, repair, and enhance the natural integrity of the Ranch for future generations by participating in projects ranging from trail construction and maintenance, stream restoration, and fire rehabilitation to forest fuels reduction, erosion control, and invasive species removal. Your crew will have the same opportunity this coming summer. As a requirement of the Arrowhead Award, your trek itinerary will feature an assigned 3-hour conservation project critical to the continued operation of Philmont Scout Ranch. This project will be facilitated by trained Conservation Department staff at one of several conservation sites across the ranch.