Notre Dame Student's Eagle Scout Project Cleans, Preserves Local Trail

Teen Malcolm Rambert’s recent Eagle Scout Service Project added a new kiosk to the Notre Dame High School’s Nature Study Area-XC Trail.

Malcolm is a member of Boy Scout Troop 193, a student at NDHS and a member of its cross country team. When Malcolm was a freshman running through the woods of NDHS’s running trail, he thought about how beautiful the area was, except for all the trash and discarded water bottles along the trail. So when it came time to select an Eagle Scout Service Project, Malcolm knew actually what he wanted to do, clean up the trail and have it recognized as a nature study area that could be preserved and maintained.

Malcolm’s ambitious Eagle Scout Service Project consisted of 5 phases:

Phase 1

Clean-up of trash, water bottles and other foreign debris from the trail area

• There are dozens of water bottles, trash and other debris that have been carried into this area by overflowing streams and littering.  

Phase 2

• Making the trail safer by making it passable and less slippery.
• Pruning thorn bushes and vines hanging over the trail that trip runners and walkers along the trail.

Mapping out the area with a GPS and measuring the course

• This will benefit those studying the area with more accurate distance information.
• It would provide the cross country coaches with accurate trail length information for timing runners.  

Phase 4

Performing additional research on trees, plants and wildlife in this area

• Provide a brief history of the nature preserve area and identify trees, plants and the wildlife in this area. To benefit teachers and fellow students and to expand biology and environmental sciences course from the indoor classroom to the outside trail.
• Work with the people at the Drexel Woods Nature Preserve, adjacent to the NDXC. They have information on the plant and wildlife in this area. 

Erect a kiosk at the head of the trail. The kiosk can:

• Hold the trail map
• Hold information about the nature area
  
• Serve as a bulletin board where coaches can post information about XC workouts 
  
• The classroom teachers can provide updated information about this nature area 
  

Malcolm and approximately 30 volunteers from Troop 193, NDHS’s Environmental club and the NDHS cross country team have spent over 100 hours over the past year working on the various phases of Malcolm’s Eagle Scout Service Project.

The NDHS-XC trail is located adjacent to the 36 acre Drexel Woods open space, nature study and passive recreation area at the southern end of Lawrence Township.

Malcome said he is happy to see his vision of cleaning up the trail come to fruition and is proud of the steps he has taken to have it recognized as a Nature Study area that his fellow NDHS students, teachers and XC teammates can enjoy. 

“I want to thank everyone who helped me complete this project, it was a lot of hard work, but also a lot of fun," he said.