BEST FRIEND Perry-Miller’s German shorthaired pointer, King, plays a key role in tracking quail at the Lake Lewisville Environmental Learning Area. “Pointer dogs are much better than humans at smelling quail,” PerryMiller said.
ReMarker ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS 10600 PRESTON RD. DALLAS, TX 75230
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Number one-hundred fifteen In the history of scouting, only 114 scouts have ever received the Distinguished Conservation Award for their leadership in the field ofconservation efforts. After nearly two years and thousands of hours, freshman Baxter Perry-Miller is steps away from becoming number 115.
March 11, 2021
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The ReMarker
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Jonathan Yin: What exactly is the Distinguished Conservation Service Award, and what do you need to do in order to receive one? Baxter Perry-Miller: The Boy Scouts recently just came out with a new award that replaces the Hornaday award. The award is the exact same, just the name has changed. To receive a Distinguished Conservation Service Award, you have to orchestrate an environmental project — similar to an Eagle Scout project — and monitor it for four to six months. Each project must have a lasting impact on the environment after you’re done. I finished my second project, and right now, I’m working on both my third and fourth. JY: How did you get started doing conservation work, and what inspired you to pursue this award? BP: I’ve honestly just always grown up with conservation. When I met with my merit badge counselor for Scouts, he told me about the Hornaday Award. It’s really unique, because only 114 scouts had ever gotten the Hornaday Silver Medal, which you receive when you’ve done four Hornaday award projects. I was like, ‘That’s really cool. I think that’s something that I can do.” For me, it’s a way of giving back to the people that have encouraged and supported me. JY: Can you walk us through what you’ve done for your projects? BP: For my first project, I built four trash and recycling bins at the Trinity River Audubon Center and monitored those for six months, which helped reduce trash on the Trinity River trails and the surrounding ecosystem. My second project was a battery drive, in which I collected batteries from all across Dallas for five months and then donated them to the Dallas hazardous materials waste center, where they can handle them safely. Right now, I am finishing my third project, where I released and monitored 110 quail at the Lake Lewisville Environmental Learning Area (LLELA). They have an amazing 2600 acre conservation property. I’m using dogs to track the quail and see how well they’re surviving and how well they handle different conditions in their new habitat. I started this project Sept. 26, I believe, and I’m planning on finishing sometime in the beginning of this month. Once I’m done collecting the data, I’ll give it to the researchers over at LLELA. JY: What are the logistics for that? BP: I monitor the quail at LLELA every other week for about six hours at a time. We use pointing dogs such as my dog — a German shorthaired pointer — and he can smell the birds a lot easier than we can. If he flushes them, we can get a count of how many birds there are in a group. We’ve been counting the quail at
LLELA by transect. LLELA is huge, so we just measure a small area, and with the information we can figure out how many quail are in a larger area. JY: What’s your favorite project you’ve done out of the four? BP: My favorite project has probably been the Lake Lewisville Environmental Learning Area project with the quail release. It’s really nice to get outside of Dallas and it’s very relaxing to just get out there. JY: What’s in store for the future? BP: For my fourth project, I’m going to go down to Bonton Farms in south Dallas, which provides fresh fruits and vegetables to the food desert there. I’m planning on planting native Texas wildflowers and grasses, as well as setting up a bee apiary to help with cross pollination for their crops. Because that area is so demineralized, it’s very hard to grow things. Hopefully, this project will help bring back some of those minerals in the soil. JY: What would you say to those out there that might want to start helping out with the environment? BP: I would say that conservation is not only important to help the environment, but also to educate people about the effects that they have on the environment. If someone wanted to get into conservation, I would tell them to start with something that they are interested in, because if they start with something that they are interested in, then they will want to do it more and more and be more active and engaged. JY: How does it feel to be so close to number 115? BP: It’s so crazy because when I first started my process, I was like, ‘Wow, four projects is a lot of work.’ Looking back at it, two and a half years later, it’s so crazy to think of the person that I’ve become just because of the Hornaday Award and how much I’ve matured and how much I’ve grown through this experience. Through these [projects], I’ve really come to learn about leading people and helping the environment. According to the Boy Scouts of America website, the William T. Hornaday Award, awarded to scouts for leadership in conservation efforts, was replaced with the Distinguished Conservation Service Award Dec. 4.
STORY Jonathan Yin PHOTOS Courtesy Baxter Perry-Miller
In the span of two years, Perry-Miller has logged over 1400 conservation hours across three projects.
650 hours spent
489 hours spent
298 hours spent
Cleaning the Trinity Valley River ecosystem May ‘19 — October ‘19
Organizing battery disposal January ‘20 — June ‘20
Monitoring quail June ‘20 — March ‘21
SET FREE Perry-Miller has partnered with Park City Quail, a quail conservation group based in Dallas, to release over 100 birds into the wilderness.
