Fish and Wildlife Management

Construct, erect, and check regularly at least two artificial nest boxes (wood duck, bluebird, squirrel, etc.) and keep written records for one nesting season.

Construct, erect, and check regularly bird feeders and keep written records daily over a two-week period of the kinds of birds visiting the feeders.

Develop and implement a fishery improvement project or a backyard wildlife habitat improvement project. Share the results with your counselor.

Design and construct a wildlife blind near a game trail, water hole, salt lick, bird feeder, or birdbath and take good photographs or make sketches from the blind of any combination of 10 wild birds, mammals, reptiles, or amphibians.

Observe and record 25 species of wildlife. Your list may include mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Write down when and where each animal was seen.

List the wildlife species in your state that are classified as endangered, threatened, exotic, non-native, game species, furbearers, or migratory game birds. Discuss with your counselor management practices in place or being developed for at least three of these species.

Start a scrapbook of North American fish and wildlife. Insert markers to divide the book into separate parts for mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. Collect articles on such subjects as life histories, habitat, behavior, and feeding habits on all of the five categories and place them in your notebook accordingly. Articles and pictures may be taken from newspapers or science, nature, and outdoor magazines, or from other sources including the internet (with your parent or guardian's permission). Enter at least five articles on mammals, five on birds, five on reptiles, five on amphibians, and five on fish. Put each animal on a separate sheet in alphabetical order. Include pictures whenever possible.

Determine the age of five species of fish from scale samples or identify various age classes of one species in a lake and report the results.

Conduct a creel census on a small lake to estimate catch per unit effort and report the results to your counselor.

Examine the stomach contents of three fish and record the findings. It is not necessary to catch any fish for this option.

Make a freshwater aquarium. Include at least four species of native plants and four species of animal life, such as whirligig beetles, freshwater shrimp, tadpoles, water snails, and golden shiners. After 60 days of observation, discuss with your counselor the life cycles, food chains, and management needs you have recognized. Before completing this requirement, check local laws on releasing these organisms back into the wild, and follow your counselor's direction in disposing of these organisms humanly and safely.