Boy Scouts join hands with beetle-kill fertilizer producer

By Stephen Clearheart Johnson
North Forty News

LaPorte's Troop 87 has partnered with Andre Roy in the production and sale of Roy's garden fertilizer and soap made from beetle-killed slash.

Details of Roy's Soil Primer products and process were reported in the March issue of the North Forty News (online at www.northfortynews.com).

The Boy Scouts are raising funds for high-adventure camps by working to lop and chip slash, then selling the product to friends and family. "All the scouts felt it was earth-friendly," troop leader Scott Addington noted. "It's a better way than just burning it."

A third partner, Glacier View Meadows, is providing material from the community slash pile. The scouts will earn 25 cents per pound of chips they produce while Glacier View will be paid $100 per month for use of the slash pile.

"Nobody ever dreamed of getting paid for slash," Roy said as he presented the first check to Glacier View's ecological committee.

For their first day on the job, July 9, the scouts gathered at Glacier View to learn the basics of using loppers and chippers to turn twigs and green needles into usable chips. Boyd Labeda of the Colorado State Forest Service joined them and brought a large chipper to demonstrate safe use of the equipment.

"Anything that creates value in wood products is helpful," Labeda said.