Ohiopyle youth takes on conservation projects in pursuit of prestigious Boy Scout award
Peter Livengood, of Ohiopyle, a member of Boy Scout Troop 687, is pictured in front of the Falls Market and Restaurant in Ohiopyle, by one of the bioswales, which are landscape elements that remove pollution and debris from stormwater runoff before it goes into the Youghiogheny River. Livengood organized and raised money to restore the bioswales. He established a maintenance plan and fund to maintain them, including a Go Fund Me page for donations at gf.me/u/katnks. Livengood restored the bioswales as his Eagle Scout project. It is also one of four conservation projects Livengood conducted as he attempts to earn one of Boy Scout's most prestigious honors: the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal Award.
Peter Livengood, of Ohiopyle, and a member of Boy Scout Troop 687, recently received the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Forest Conservation Award from Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn at Ohiopyle State Park. Livengood conducted four conservation projects as he attempts to earn one of Boy Scout's most prestigious honors: the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal Award. Pictured are (from left) DCNR Deputy Secretary for Parks and Forestry John Norbeck, Livengood and Dunn.
Peter Livengood, of Ohiopyle, and a member of Boy Scout Troop 687, conducts water testing with two scientific test probes at Cranberry Glade Lake, in Confluence, Somerset County, which has been overcome by invasive aquatic plants. This is one of four conservation projects Livengood conducted as he attempts to earn one of Boy Scout's most prestigious honors: the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal Award.
Peter Livengood, of Ohiopyle and a member of Boy Scout Troop 687, is pictured at the Summit Golf Course in Farmington where he is scanning for migrating birds of prey with binoculars. A juvenile bald eagle migrated past just a few minutes before. This is one of four conservation projects Livengood conducted as he attempts to earn one of Boy Scout's most prestigious honors: the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal Award.
Peter Livengood, of Ohiopyle, a member of Boy Scout Troop 687, is pictured in front of the Falls Market and Restaurant in Ohiopyle, in the midst of one of the bioswales, which are landscape elements that remove pollution and debris from stormwater runoff before it goes into the Youghiogheny River. Livengood organized and raised money to restore the bioswales. He established a maintenance plan and fund to maintain them, including a Go Fund Me page for donations at gf.me/u/katnks. Livengood restored the bioswales as his Eagle Scout project. It is also one of four conservation projects Livengood conducted as he attempts to earn one of Boy Scout's most prestigious honors: the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal Award.
Submitted photo
Peter Livengood of Ohiopyle, a member of Boy Scout Troop 687, is pictured at Ohiopyle State Park Kentuck Campground where he is identifying a plant species during a scientific vegetation survey. This is one of four conservation projects Livengood conducted as he attempts to earn one of Boy Scout’s most prestigious honors: the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal Award.
Peter Livengood, of Ohiopyle, a member of Boy Scout Troop 687, is pictured in front of the Falls Market and Restaurant in Ohiopyle, in the midst of one of the bioswales, which are landscape elements that remove pollution and debris from stormwater runoff before it goes into the Youghiogheny River. Livengood organized and raised money to restore the bioswales. He established a maintenance plan and fund to maintain them, including a Go Fund Me page for donations at gf.me/u/katnks. Livengood restored the bioswales as his Eagle Scout project. It is also one of four conservation projects Livengood conducted as he attempts to earn one of Boy Scout's most prestigious honors: the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal Award.
Peter Livengood, of Ohiopyle, left, and a member of Boy Scout Troop 687, recently received the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Forest Conservation Award from Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn at Ohiopyle State Park for his work in conservation. Livengood conducted four conservation projects as he attempts to earn one of Boy Scout's most prestigious honors: the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal Award.
Peter Livengood’s interest in conservation motivated him to try for one of Boy Scout’s most prestigious honors: the William T. Hornaday Silver Medal Award.
“If you waste resources now,” said Livengood, 17, of Ohiopyle and a son of Gerald and Michelle Livengood, “what will you have for later?”
A member of Boy Scout Troop 687 in Farmington, Livengood tackled four large-scale conservation projects in an attempt to earn the Hornaday award.
They included restoring the bioswales at Ohiopyle, which he is also using as his Eagle Scout project; a hawk count on Chestnut Ridge and research projects to restore the understory at Ohiopyle State Park Kentuck Campground and remove invasive water plants from Cranberry Glade Lake in nearby Somerset County.
“It ended up being 1,400 hours on my part,” said Livengood.
Livengood’s work has attracted the attention of the state with Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn recently traveling to Ohiopyle where she honored him with the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Forest Conservation Award.
“It’s always exciting to see Pennsylvania youths exploring the things that we can learn and do to protect and conserve our natural resources and environment,” said Dunn.
“It was exciting,” said Livengood. “But knowing the projects were completed was reward itself.”
A homeschooled, high school senior who lives on a family farm, Livengood enjoys activities such as hunting, fishing and birdwatching, saying, “If I have free time, I’m doing something outdoors.”
But Livengood has taken his interest another step by attending the Penn State Conservation Leadership School in 2016 and 17, becoming a certified conservation ambassador for the Pennsylvania Wildlife Leadership Academy, joining the Allegheny Plateau Audubon Society and becoming appointed to the Governor’s Youth Advisory Council on Hunting, Fishing and Conservation.
Conservation is also an integral part of the Boy Scouts. Livengood has earned the Scouts’ Outdoor Ethics Award and now hopes to attain the Hornaday award.
The Boy Scouts website explains, “The fundamental purpose of the Hornaday Awards program is to encourage learning by the participants and to increase public awareness about natural resource conservation.”
For the “Blooming Bioswales for a Better River” project, Livengood tackled Ohiopyle’s bioswales, which are landscape elements that remove pollution and debris from stormwater runoff before it goes into the Youghiogheny River.
Ohiopyle’s bioswales had been installed in 2010 but had not been maintained properly. Livengood organized and raised money to restore the bioswales. He established a maintenance plan and a fund to maintain them, including a Go Fund Me page for donations at gf.me/u/katnks.
Donna Holdorf, executive director, National Road Heritage Corridor, commended Livengood for taking on the project, in a press release for a summer ceremony that celebrated the final planting.
Liz McCarty, Ohiopyle Borough council president, also noted in the press release, “We couldn’t be more pleased with the work Peter has done. We finally have a system of bioswales in place to help alleviate some of our stormwater issues. And we are very grateful to Peter and his family for all their hard work.”
For the “Researching Raptors on Chestnut Ridge” project, Livengood founded the Summit Mountain Hawkwatch as a new official site through the Hawk Migration Association of North America.
“There was no published record of migrating raptor counts on Chestnut Ridge,” said Livengood. “It’s the last western ridge in Pennsylvania. There are no ridges in between Chestnut Ridge and the foothills of the Rockies that are as high as Chestnut Ridge.”
Livengood conducted counts last spring and this fall at Jumonville cross and the Summit Inn golf course.
For “Restoring the Understory,” Livengood met with park manager Ken Bisbee about conducting research to restore Ohiopyle State Park’s Kentuck Campground understory, which is the vegetation that grows below a forest’s main canopy.
“Campers destroyed the understory between the campsites, causing soil erosion problems and removed privacy for campers,” said Livengood.
Working with Dr. Mark Tebbitt of California University, Livengood conducted research to see what plants grow there naturally and screening surveys to determine how much privacy they would provide.
They also discovered the understory was destroyed by campers setting up tents where they are not supposed to because there are no defined tent pad sites. Damage also occurred because there are no defined parking areas. They installed three experimental tent pads, which proved successful, and made recommendations for tent pads, parking areas and understory restoration.
Livengood explained “Saving Cranberry Glade Lake” involved a 72-acre, man-made lake that used to be a popular fishing attraction but is now overcome by invasive aquatic plants.
Livengood added, “Ospreys used to nest there but they haven’t for the last several years because of the thick vegetation.”
Livengood theorized a possible solution was to stock a weed-eating, Asian fish species called grass carp, using the sterile triploid variety so they wouldn’t reproduce. The fish could eat invasive plant species with little negative environmental impact.
Working with Dr. David Argent of California University, Livengood collected extensive baseline information and discovered most of the plants were unpalatable for the grass carp. They also discovered the reason for the plant growth is that the lake is very shallow and suggested a solution would be to deepen the lake or consider mechanical removal of the plants. A research summary was given to the Fish and Boat Commission.
Livengood received support for all his projects through donations, grants and volunteers.
Talking about the projects, Livengood said, “It’s the first actual research I’ve done and it’s good experience since I’m looking to go into a wildlife management field. Through these projects I learned more than I could ever in a classroom. The experience provided was invaluable.”