Imagine standing at a trailhead with a small group of friends. It’s early morning, and the air is filled with the scent of pine and honeysuckle. In a nearby tree, a squirrel is chittering away. An eagle circles high overhead, soaring gracefully on unseen...
In 1939—deep in the Great Depression—the Boy Scouts of America opened what would become Philmont Scout Ranch. Fewer than 200 Scouts visited Philmont that first summer, but optimistic ranch employees launched a building program that fall, knowing better...
When I was a Boy Scout in the 1960s, we didn’t learn about recycling or climate change or sustainability. But we did learn to leave each campsite better than we found it, to leave nothing but footprints, and to take nothing but pictures.
A half-century...