"Eagle Scout Bryan Oakley and His Crew Make Our Walden Pond Sparkle!..."

Walden Pond Is Now A Cleaner Home For Our Wildlife!...

Being the home for a number wildlife is sometimes a dirty job for the Discovery Center. The animals who call the Discovery Center "home" need a clean and safe environment to live. The wildlife you see in our pond now has a cleaner home, thanks to Eagle Scout Bryan Oakley.

Why Bryan Chose The Discovery Center

For his Eagle Scout project, Bryan wanted to do something that would really make a difference. "I chose the Discovery Center because I knew a lot of children go there for field trips and birthday parties." With the help of his friends and fellow scouts in Troop 257, Bryan was able to get rid of a lot of the "muck" in the pond and clean it up!

Getting Rid Of The Muck

The entire project took Bryan and his crew 21 hours, spread over three days, to clean up the pond. It was a pretty messy job. "We started off with the lower pond and got down into the muck. We used a ShopVac and sucked out the couple of inches of the slime off the bottom, and pulled some of the dead grass around it," Bryan said. After re-filling the pond, they tackled the second and third levels of the pond. We decided to drain the pond one level at a time, that way there could always be a place to leave the wildlife."

A Job Well Done

Bryan and his crew noticed right away how they made a difference in preserving some of the plant life they found in the pond. "In some spots, the muck was close to a foot deep. The water plants were choking out all of the space, and the turtles could barely walk around," Bryan said.

Though it was tough work, Bryan said his crew of troop members and friends really enjoyed themselves. "I was afraid they had a bad time, but the next day at school they said they all had a fun time helping out."

For the last part of his project, Bryan said they are building new covers for the pond's filtration system. "Although we aren't quite done yet, I'm very pleased with the projected outcome," Bryan said of his efforts.

Great work Bryan!