Volunteer to plant saplings in Jasper Fire area

Scouting America Life Scout and Senior Patrol Leader Daniel Ferraro, as part of his Eagle Scout Project and in cooperation with the Black Hills Forest Service, is working toward restoring the Jasper Fire area by planting saplings, but he can’t do it alone. Ferraro is looking for around 30 volunteers to sign up for pre-arranged shifts where they will learn how to plant the saplings and start digging. 
Now a junior in high school, Ferraro has been involved in Scouting America since he was in second grade with the support of his parents, Chuck and Jenny. Some of Ferraro’s favorite parts have been the outdoor activities like camping, backpacking, rock climbing and fishing, as well as the fundraisers. 
“I like leading the group we’ve got. The new scouts we have like doing stuff outside. They’re very active,” said Ferraro.
About a month ago, Ferraro started working on his Eagle Scout project. 
“It’s a really nice thing to do. There’s a lot of benefits to it. It looks really good on a resume, but mostly it’s an achievement for me, and it’d be a really fun thing to get done before I age out,” said Ferraro. “I’m learning a lot.” 
Ferraro had been brainstorming project ideas for a while when his neighbor and district silviculturist for the Hell Canyon Ranger District, Justin Yousey, asked Ferraro if he wanted to help coordinate planting trees in the Jasper Fire area. If things go well, the Forest Service’s goal is to hold more planting events using volunteers from the Black Hills to plant tree saplings in burn areas.
Yousey will also be acting as Ferraro’s beneficiary. 
“An Eagle Scout project is supposed to help either a community or an organization in the community,” said Ferraro. “There needs to be one person who’s deciding you are actually doing a good job and helping the community. So he’s the guy doing that for me.”
When Ferraro was handed the huge packet of papers for his project, his initial reaction was, “There’s just no way that I can do this. Eagle Scout projects usually take like up to six months, and I was doing it in one.”
However, Ferraro said it has gone well, despite being pressed for time. There was a lot of paperwork to fill out and hoops to jump through, each with its own timeline. 
“The biggest thing that’s changed for me is that I’m very specific, and also I really don’t like to give wrong answers, so I always triple checked everything,” said Ferraro. “It’s definitely been a growth in how I do pretty much everything, and I’m still very specific, because you need to be extremely specific for this. But I’m also figuring out, how do I get information?”
Where he would normally ask someone else to help him, Ferraro has been learning how to find answers and solve problems on his own through the project. 
To raise money for the project, Ferraro will be bagging for tips at Lynn’s Dakotamart in Custer. He is also using his dad’s professional carpet cleaning equipment to clean a few churches in Custer as a fundraiser. At this time, he is still considering whether or not to take donations for the project. 
“My scout troop, we don’t take donations unless we offer service as well,” said Ferraro. However, it was also suggested that those who cannot volunteer physically to join the project might want to donate financially to restore the area. 
For the project itself, Ferraro is organizing around 30 volunteers to plant 300 1-year-old saplings off Mud Springs Road. Ferraro said it is a unique spot because you can see rolling hills with no trees alongside two-foot-tall trees that have been growing for 20 years. 
“That’s part of why planting trees in general is so important, especially in an area like the Jasper Fire where there’s no trees because there’s no seedlings to start growing back,” said Ferraro. 
It will be an all-day event with different hour-and-a-half time slots for people to sign up for, and the Forest Service is providing different tools for planting. 
“We’re going to teach them how to plant trees, just different safety aspects along with it. Then, basically, we send them out under some sort of supervision, and they plant saplings,” said Ferraro. 
The seeds were originally collected from the same area where the seedlings will be planted. 
“The way that pine seeds work is they’re extremely adapted to their specific environment,” said Ferraro. “You’ve got to keep it really close to where the original tree was just because the different environments change in the Hills.”
The seedlings were grown at a nursery in Nebraska and will be sent back to Custer two weeks before the event. 
Volunteers can sign up to help on Facebook at Custer Community Tree Planters. For more information, contact Ferraro at 605-517-9448. 
To officially achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, Ferraro will have to complete his project in its entirety, fill out all of the paperwork, finish his required merit badges and be interviewed by the board of review.  
“As long as I keep everything tidy and just have everything written down, and I don’t forget anything that could be substantial, then there’s a decent chance that I’ll be able to get it by next year,” said Ferraro.