Peter Livengood, a 12th grade student from Fayette County, was recently notified he has been awarded the Boy Scouts of America William T. Hornaday Silver Medal for Conservation for completing 4 major conservation projects in and around his community.
The William T. Hornaday Silver Medal is one of the most prestigious awards in the Boy Scouting program and is often described as an Olympic Medal for conservation work by a Boy Scout. An average of only 3 Medals have been given out annually since 1975.
“I am thankful for the many donors, volunteers, and natural resource professionals who contributed to these projects. I certainly could not have completed the projects without their help,” said Livengood.
Livengood is a homeschooled student from near Ohiopyle and has been a Boy Scout since 2013 in Troop #687 in Farmington and lives on a small family farm.
He has been a certified Conservation Ambassador by the PA Wildlife Leadership Academy since 2015, attended the Penn State Conservation Leadership School in 2016 and 2017, is a member of the Allegheny Plateau Audubon Society and was appointed to the Governor's Youth Advisory Council on Hunting, Fishing and Conservation.
He was also recognized for is work in and around Ohiopyle State Park in Fayette County by DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn.
4 Conservation Projects
To win the Medal, Livengood completed 4 major conservation projects. Here’s how he describes them--
-- Project #1. Restoring the Bioswales in Ohiopyle, PA: Bioswales are street-side green landscape elements that collect and purify stormwater runoff. There are 30 bioswales in the Ohiopyle borough, comprising nearly 4,000 square feet of biofilter area. The Ohiopyle Bioswales had not been properly maintained for ten years, which left them non-functioning. My renovation project involved a total of 1,977 total man-hours, including 586 hours of my own time. The monetary value of my project was approximately $25,000 dollars, which I completely funded through material and monetary donations. I developed a detailed Maintenance Manual and assisted the Borough with hiring a bioswale maintenance official, who is currently employed with the funding I raised. I helped the Borough develop several ongoing fundraising ideas, including a GoFundMe page, www.gf.me/u/katnks Click Here for more.
-- Project #2: Researching Raptors on Chestnut Ridge in southwestern PA: I discovered a previously undocumented bird of prey migration flyway on Chestnut Ridge in the western Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania. I founded the Summit Mountain Hawkwatch on this flyway, https://hawkcount.org/siteinfo.php?rsite=802 which is now the farthest west ridge hawkwatch in Pennsylvania, with spring and fall migration to be conducted each year. Even though the project ended last summer, I am still working to set up a long-term hawkwatch site with consistent official counters. The project took 926 hours, 388 of which were my own. Click Here for more.
-- Project #3: Saving Cranberry Glade Lake – A Research Assessment: I performed baseline research on Cranberry Glade Lake in Somerset County, PA to assist the PA Fish & Boat Commission with managing overgrown aquatic vegetation. I specifically considered the feasibility and sustainability of introducing Triploid Grass Carp to control weeds. I led 571 hours of research, 240 of which were my own, assessing depth and temperature profile, plant species presence and prevalence, nitrate, nitrite, and phosphate levels, and more. Click Here for more.
-- Project #4: Restoring the Forest Understory: This project took place in the Ohiopyle State Park Kentuck Campground. The forest understory in the Campground area had been seriously depleted. I worked with the Park Manager and completed vegetation assessments of the native plants in the surrounding areas and created an Understory Restoration Plan. I led 545 hours of research on this project, 204 hours of which were my own. We also determined the causes of the understory depletion (absence of tent pads, signage, or defined parking) and looked at ways to mitigate these causes. The Ohiopyle State Park Manager will use my Understory Restoration Plan in future years to rehabilitate the Campground area. Click Here for more.
Livengood will be presented with the Hornaday Silver Medal and the Eagle Scout Rank at a Court of Honor Ceremony in the near future.
He can be contacted by sending email to: PeterE.Livengood@gmail.com.
(Photo: Livengood accepting the Conservation Award from DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn.)
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