ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
How The Boy Scouts & NCAC's Camp Snyder Balance Scouting with Land Management
Located partially within the 30-Mile Special Flight Rules Area of the National Capitol Region, BSA National Capital Area Council's Camp Snyder is an environmental oasis connecting the wildlands of the NoVa Greenbelt to the DC area scouts. Easily within reach of 15 million people, it serves as a resource for scouting as well as other affiliated groups. The land is managed by a team that has decades of hands-on experience in balancing the use as a scout camp while ensuring the proper environmental appreciation envisioned by all scouting locations. By enhancing it's STEM program to be more inclusive of all of the scouting initiatives, Camp Snyder has implemented a LASR@ program in order to provide meaningful STEM activities that are scout-led and troop centric. This allows the camp to operate more efficiently in a place with incredible beauty and detail, while encouraging the troop leadership to advance the scouts in their areas of interest while increasing their technology and scientific knowledge, skills, and abilities in the field. Many of the projects are Camp Snyder are in direct support of merit badge tasks, and a few are aligned with Eagle Scout projects that take place in other public lands.
Water Management
Camp Snyder's environmental program has the need for frequent wetlands management of naturally occurring water events. Camp Snyder has more than 100 acres of managed wetlands designed and maintained to support camp programming. For certain activities in the wetlands, the monitoring of permits and uses is best conducted with longitudinal data-to-information programs. This approach directly supports the mission of scouting since it engages scouts in data collection and camp conservation when used in concert with the camp management plan.
Land Management
Camp Snyder is more than 300 acres of scouting paradise located in the urban-rural interface of Washington, DC. All things on the property are built with scouting in mind—from the camp sites that are placed in eastern woodlands forests, to the layout of the programming area—and through the LASR@ Camp Snyder program the camp leadership and scouts who are immersed in the conservation program are ensuring the beauty of the camp is maintained for all to enjoy.
For more than 10 years Camp Snyder has offered a unique scouting experience.
UAS Academy's Citizen Scientists and Scouting Team Up
USING LASR@ PROGRAM TO GATHER DATA AND INSIGHTS ABOUT CAMP SNYDER
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Data to Information to Knowledge
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Empowering Those Who Know the Camp the Best
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Leveraging Easy to Use LASR Systems to Increase Scientific Data Quality
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Increased Frequency of Environmental Data Collection to Improve Management Decisions
The UAS Academy LASR@ Citizen Science Program provides the back office of the Camp Snyder Environmental Science Project. Educational objectives of the Academy courses are combined with Camp Snyder data that is collected during LASR operations at the camp, resulting in a summary report each quarter that shows the current status and trend forecast for the camp management.
This report is summarized in an easy to use blog on this website.
ELEVATION MAPPING TO 1cm ACCURACY
Water Resource Planning and Management Compliance and Programming Performance While
Conserving Great Looking Programming Venues for Scouts
EROSION MAPPING WITH CATEGORIZATION OF SOILS, VEGETATION, AND ELEVATION FOR ACCURATE PREDICTION
Using the "Blanchard-82 Porosity Algorithm" these categorized images are extremely useful for rural road and drainage management, allowing for remote work order planning and
"just in time" storm water and erosion mitigation management models.
3D MODELS ACCURATE TO 5cm FOR STEAM PROGRAMMING, CAMP PLANNING, and MERIT BADGE ACHIEVEMENT & ENHANCEMENT
One of the more critical aspects of Camp Snyder is the ability to gain long camp enhancements that support the camp mission. Among these enhancements are the use of the camp by NCAC scouts from all districts. A focus of the camp programming that comes with the LASR@ is the use of modern workforce technologies to enable scouts to explore camp snyder in virtual and augmented reality modes while immersed in the camp environment. This is known to be a motivator of STEAM activities and has been shown to increase the Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) of the participant. When natural and man-made aspects of the programming areas impact the perception of the viewer, the scout is challenged to engage and explore. Camp Snyder uses 3d models to engage and inform scouts at the camp in it's authentic, natural setting.
CAMP PRODUCTIVITY
Scouting organizations are proud of their support of local communities. Part of being a good custodian of Camp Snyder is the ability to provide beneficial use of the land and water resources used for both scouting activities, and enhancement of local LASR@ programs.
WILDFIRE FUEL ASSESSMENT
One of the most difficult assessments to make is a wildfire fuels assessment. The difficulty with calculating volume, access to the ground truthing locations, and the frequency of sampling
all create the need for more scientific data collection.
PROGRAM OBJECTIVES
2018-2020
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Enable Troop-Centric LASR Programs
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Quantify Camp Management's Use of LASR
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Develop STEAM Programming for:
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Conservation Merit Badge
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Environmental Science Merit Badge
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Photography Merit Badge
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Journalism Merit Badge
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Search & Rescue Merit Badge
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Emergency Management Merit Badge
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Increase Water & Land Use Effectiveness
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Enhance Camp Plans with LASR Data
CONTACT
If your are interested in learning how to apply Land.Air.Sea Robotics to your Environmental Science practice, or you are a Citizen Scientist and want to be involved in a project at one of UASA's LASR@ locations, drop us a note.
6100 Antioch Road, Haymarket, VA 20169
703 856 8400
