Thanks to the efforts of Collin Noyes, local lakes Washington, Erie and Belle are cleaner.
As his Eagle Scout project, Noyes, 16, with the help of two Scout volunteers and parents took, on the task of cleaning up three area lakes at the conclusion of Minnesota's ice fishing season.
He chose Washington, Erie and Belle because he was looking for a cluster of lakes where a lot of work could be done in a short amount of time. They headed out on March 6 using a 4-wheeler to travel to ice house clusters and then fanned out from there and walked toward the shoreline, picking up litter and debris as they went.
Remarkably, after 5 1/2 hours of work and walking a total of 6 miles, the group ended up with three 13-gallon bags of garbage. The most interesting find was a gas can. Otherwise, it was food wrappers, pop bottles and a bag of human waste.
"It was much easier than I thought it would be," Collin said. "I thought there would be a lot more garbage."
One of the reasons for the small amount of garbage his dad suggested was due to the shorter ice fishing season this year. As a result, there wasn't so much garbage left on the lakes. Another thought was that anglers are getting more responsible and picking up and hauling their trash away rather than leaving it on the ice.
As far as Eagle Scout service projects go, Noyes' was low cost due to volunteers and donations. Businesses gave him permission to deposit the bags of garbage in their dumpsters.
"It was a gorgeous day," said Susan Noyes, Collin's mother. "I enjoyed it. I'm not an ice fisherman, so I don't enjoy being on the ice, but I had a good time."
PLANNING A PROJECT
The Hutchinson High School sophomore started working on his Eagle Scout project in January. As a hunting and fishing enthusiast, he knew that if debris was left on the lakes, it would pollute the area during the spring thaw.
"Clean lakes are important to everyone," he wrote in his project proposal. "Winter ice fishing can be a big contributor to pollution."
The Hutchinson native joined Cub Scouts in first grade, following in the footsteps of his parents. His dad, Jeremy, was a Boy Scout for a short time and his mom, Susan, was a Girl Scout.
Noyes has stuck with it because of "great leadership."
"You definitely find people who have the same interests," he said. "We do things as a group and have shared goals."
Following through to earn his Eagle Scout rank was a natural progression for him. While it's important to come up with a service project idea, there's a lot more to it than that. You have to execute it to a successful conclusion, which means Noyes had to get organized, doing everything from recruiting volunteers to collecting supplies.
The Dassel Boy Scout Troop had made it a tradition to clean up Lake Washington. Noyes reached out to them for advice. They told him not to push too hard due to the typically cold weather at that time of year. With Noyes focusing on Washington, Erie and Bell, the Dassel group tackled Lake Stella. Thanks to their collaboration, four lakes were cleaned up by Hutchinson and Dassel volunteers.
The best advice the Dassel Scouts gave Noyes was to take a chisel along to pry garbage frozen in the ice. Although Saturday was a picture-perfect day with the mercury hitting almost 60 degrees above zero, there was still about 20 inches of ice on area lakes.
Next up for Noyes is completing the requirements for his Eagle Scout rank. To do this, he'll need to assemble and submit a binder documenting his project, and then he'll go before a board of review to be interviewed about what he has done, what he has learned and how he has enjoyed the Scouting program. Once everything is approved and signed off, his achievement will be recognized during an Eagle Court of Honor ceremony, which if all goes well is expected to be later this year.
"At first I wanted to do it because it looks great on job applications," Noyes said. "Now I want to do it as an achievement for myself."
