Requirements:

1. Did you know that each State has a State bird, flower and tree? Find out why the State tree or another historic tree in Maryland is important and write a poem or song about it.

2. Here are two games to help you learn more about trees.

3. As a troop, you can celebrate the role trees have in the environment. Plant a tree or participate in an Arbor Day or Earth Day Celebration. Maryland celebrates Arbor Day the first Wednesday of April while the National Arbor Day is the last Friday of April. Earth Day is celebrated on April 22^nd.

4. Some trees grow from acorns and various groups “grow-out” acorns into seedlings that are given back to the community for tree plantings. Collect acorns (otherwise known as seed) for one of these groups. Contact the Potomac Watershed Partnership’s Growing Native program, Maryland Forest Service’s John F. Ayton State Forest Tree Nursery or your local Forest Service Office for more information.

• Take a hike through a forest located in a park or at your meeting place and find out the differences between shade (deciduous) trees, evergreens (conifers) and shrubs. List the benefits provided by each. (For example, shade, air quality, water quality, aesthetics, etc.)
• While on a hike through a forest, try to identify 6 trees. The following crafts can help you:

a.Leaves can be used to identify trees because each leaf is unique to one species of tree. Make impressions of different leaves by leaf rubbings, ink prints, or plaster-of-paris impressions or do bark rubbings to make impressions of different tree bark or make a scrapbook of the different trees in your area.

b. Create a mobile using leaves, cones, seeds, etc. to illustrate the differences and similarities. But use only material on the ground - do not remove from the trees.