How Girl Scouts and Federal Agencies Can Work Together

Girl Scout councils are informed that limited funding and staffing means that some agencies are unable to work directly with individual Girl Scouts and troops. Multi-troop or council-wide activities are encouraged in order to best utilize each agency professional's time and maximize the number of girls who experience the outdoor activities. Councils interested in doing this would designate a contact person to meet with agency professionals and then distribute the information to volunteers, troop leaders, and girls. This council contact would work with the local or regional agency contact to identify and offer meaningful opportunities that can be accomplished with agency staff and resources, or perhaps other volunteer groups.

What Girl Scouts Can Do For Natural Resource Agencies

Girls are very interested in field ecology, ecosystem monitoring, biological research, and local conservation issues. Volunteer ( www.volunteer.gov ) projects could include hands-on service projects on federal or state land to re-vegetate damaged meadows or hillsides, remove exotic plants, monitor stream quality, restore historic buildings, and more. More outdoor recreation ( www.recreation.gov ) opportunities can be offered to Girl Scouts through organizational camps, group campsites, recreation permits, and Leave No Trace training. This will help girls develop outdoor skills such as developed camping, backpacking, horseback riding, skiing, hiking, fishing, and other activities. Career awareness could include meeting professionals, gaining experience in hands-on field procedures and scientific research, and first-time work experiences through internships.

Some suggested projects and activities for girls include:

• Disseminating information about the agency's natural areas, education programs, and hiking/camping facilities through a Girl Scout newsletter and the council communications network.  However, a council cannot endorse, lobby for, or raise funds for other organizations.

• Co-sponsoring service projects with the agency so that interested girls can participate.  They can build picnic tables and storage sheds, and design, create, and maintain hiking trails, plus so much more.

• Highlighting the work of the agency in the community by asking representatives to speak at important Girl Scout ceremonies, participate in events, or provide educational materials.  This type of community outreach can generate good public relations for both the agency and the Girl Scouts.

• Gathering Girl Scouts to assist in conservation projects on the agency's land, collecting accurate data on water quality in streams or counting the number of amphibian species in certain areas.  Such data can help monitor ecosystems and provide alerts to potential environmental impacts occurring locally.

How can I contact a local Girl Scout council?  Use the "Council Finder" on the Girl Scouts Web page www.girlscouts.org/councilfinder/ or find the name and telephone number of the local Girl Scout council by looking under "Girl Scouts" in the telephone directory. 

What Natural Resource Agencies Can Do For Girl Scouts

The public benefits through service projects completed by the Girl Scouts on federal lands and environmental education efforts within communities surrounding these lands.  Through educational programs, girls and adults increase their knowledge of public lands and natural resource principles. Through volunteer (www.volunteer.gov and www.takepride.gov ) service projects, they learn how they can participate in the conservation of public lands, and will be the future advocates for public lands.  Through outdoor recreation (www.recreation.gov ) activities, girls and adults enjoy the outdoors, learn skills based on teamwork and individual competence, and learn how they can use the land responsibly.  They are the future users, likely to be more representative socio-economically and demographically of the American public. Through contact with professionals and career awareness programs, the agencies will recruit some of the girls and adults to become future agency professionals.  All of these experiences will build from awareness to knowledge, from interest and skills to participation, and ultimately to conservation as a value and habit.

Some ways agencies can collaborate with Girl Scouts include:

• Sharing information with a Girl Scout council representative about agency programs.  Girl Scouts need to know who to contact to arrange special programs, field trips, or hiking/camping experiences.

• Involving girls in hands-on scientific research and conservation projects such as counting birds and restoring wetlands.

• Serving as short-term consultants to groups of girls working on badges or patches in subject areas such as wildlife, ecology, plant life, eco-action, outdoor survival, camping, and hiking.

• Serving as consultants to girls working on Girl Scout Bronze, Silver, and Gold awards.

• Inviting girls to participate in hands-on service projects such as replanting prairies, putting up bird and bat boxes, or combating soil erosion on hiking trails.

• Serving as property consultants for Girl Scout councils that own land.  Agencies can offer technical assistance so councils can set up long-range management plans.

• Guiding girls in inventorying ecological communities or setting up wildlife education centers for their Linking Girls to the Land Council Grant projects, EarthPACT Grant projects or Elliott Wildlife Bird Conservation sites.

How can I contact the local Federal agency office?  Look at the "Federal Natural Resource Agency Partners" section in the Resource Guide for more information about contacts and programs for each agency.  Also click on the Agency Partners page of the Linking Girls to the Land web site.   Girl Scouts and other partners can also contact federal agencies by looking up the name of the agency in the "blue" or government pages of a local telephone directory to find the location of the nearest national wildlife refuge, national park, or national forest.  Sometimes these are listed by local name, and sometimes under the U.S. Department of Agriculture or U.S. Department of Interior.   Listings are also available for the county offices of the NRCS and for the BLM state and field offices (which are found mainly in the western part of the U.S.). 

The "Girl Scouts" name, mark and all associated trademarks and logotypes, including the "Trefoil Design," are owned by Girl Scouts of the USA. Used under authority of GSUSA.