Brothers earn top conservation youth award

Josh and Jacob Weller love to study and work in Missouri's outdoors. This month, they will receive the highest award in the Missouri Conservation Frontiers program.

The Frontiers program introduces kids to the joy of Missouri's outdoors. It also encourages them to learn more and work to protect the state's natural resources.

The boys have been taking part in the Frontiers program for eight years.

On January 15, the boys will receive the program's Missouri Conservationist title. That's the highest level of achievement in the state's youth program.

Sixteen-year-old Josh said, "I like to be out in nature. The Frontiers program gave me a good reason to be out there."

That they've learn a lot about Missouri's outdoors is shown by 15-year-old Jacob's nickname of "Nature Boy." He said, "My fellow boy scouts gave me the name because I always was able to identify things in nature."

The Frontiers program includes a list of 135 different activities involving Missouri's outdoors. These concern everything from study lessons about plants and wildlife to service projects in parks or streams.

They also are encouraged to share their knowledge with others by giving demonstrations to youth groups and at retirement homes.

Frontier kids earn points for successfully completing these projects. The awards range from as little as 10 points to as many as 300 per activity. As you earn points, there are 12 different levels of achievement.

Josh and Jacob earned the Missouri Conservationist awards by earning over 30,000 points during their time as Frontiers members.

Actually, both boys went over the 30,000 point totals because they were so busy doing things that they didn't keep track of all their points. In the final tally, Jacob had 30,750 points while Josh ended up with 33,900 points.

The boys estimated they took part in over 50 different types of activities and lessons.

Asked about their favorite, both mentioned the building of brushpiles in wildlife areas to provide shelter from predators for rabbits, quail and other small animals.

Josh said, "We'd use recycled Christmas trees so we didn't have to cut down anything new to provide the shelters."

They also liked the chance to plant food plots for wild turkeys.

Jacob said, "The conservation people would plow up plots in the woods. Then we'd go in and plant native Missouri plants that turkeys use for food."

They also helped to clear trails at the Rockwoods Reservation. Another project was to clear watercress plants from a natural spring so tiny fish, shrimp, salamanders and crawfish had room to live.

Josh said, "Watercress isn't a native plant and it can grow so fast that it crowds out other native plants and wildlife."

The boys also gave demonstrations for both children and elderly people.

Jacob told of working with Head Start kids in St. Charles to make bird feeders out of pine cones. "We'd smear the pine cones with peanut butter and then roll them in bird seeds," he said. Then, the kids could hang the cones in trees near their home to attract birds.

Josh said he and his brother also put on bird demonstrations for residents of Gambrill Gardens retirement home in west St. Louis County. "We did a slide show to help them with bird identification. Then, we made bird feeders so they could hang them outside their windows," he said.

Josh was asked about the most important lessons of their Frontiers work. He said, "I learned a lot of basic knowledge about nature. The more you know, the more you respect our natural resources."

Jacob said, "I learned how to conserve natural resources."

One project around their home in Wildwood involved two plastic kiddie pools.

Josh said, "We have two big swimming pools in our sub-division. In the spring, there would be tadpoles and salamanders that got in the pools over the winter.

"Before the pools were cleaned and filled, we'd try to rescue as many of them as we could. We'd put them into the kiddies pools so they could grow."

The wooded backyard of the Weller home provides a natural habitat for wildlife.

If you'd like to join the Conservation Frontiers program, contact: Outreach and Education Division, Missouri Department of Conservation, P.O. Box 180, Jefferson City, MO 65102-0180. Or log on to the department's website at:

www.conservation.state.mo.us