Venturing Outdoor
Ethics Awards

Venturers and Venturing Advisors interested in learning more about outdoor ethics and Leave No Trace should begin by exploring the Outdoor Ethics Awareness Award. The requirements are as follows:

1. Recite from memory and explain the meaning of the Outdoor Code.

2. Watch the National Park Service Leave No Trace video.

3. Complete the Leave No Trace online course. Print the certificate.

4. Complete the Tread Lightly! online course. Print the certificate.

5. Participate in an outdoor ethics course, workshop, or training activity facilitated by a person who has completed the BSA outdoor ethics orientation course or is a BSA outdoor ethics trainer or master.

Outdoor Ethics Action Award

The Outdoor Ethics Action Award challenges Venturers and Venturing Advisors to take affirmative steps to improve their outdoor skills—so that they can leave no trace and achieve the goals of the Outdoor Code. The requirements are as follows:

Venturer Action Award Requirements

1. Do the following:

   1. Unless already completed, earn the Outdoor Ethics Awareness Award.

   2. Complete the BSA outdoor ethics orientation course.

   3. Explain how you live up to each of the four points of the Outdoor Code during an outing or adventure.

2. Do the following:

   1. Read Fieldbook chapters about Leave No Trace, using stoves and campfires, hygiene and waste disposal, and traveling and camping in special environments. Review the discussion of Leave No Trace in the Ranger Guidebook, and the foreword and chapters on Conservation Aesthetic, Wilderness, and Land Ethic in A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. Explain in your own words what Leopold meant when he stated, “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it does otherwise.”

   2. Lead a group approved by your unit leader in an activity that explores differing ethical viewpoints using materials from Scouting’s outdoor ethics page, Leave No Trace, or Tread Lightly!

3. Complete one of the following:

   1. Become a Leave No Trace Trainer, Tread Lightly! TREAD Trainer, or successfully complete a term as a crew officer with responsibility for outdoor ethics training.

   2. Research the complete set of Leave No Trace and Tread Lightly! skills related to a planned outdoor adventure. Working with your crew leadership, prepare for the adventure, including learning the skills needed to minimize impacts. Practice the skills at least once before heading out on your adventure. While on your adventure, all members of the crew participating in the adventure should use the outdoor skills and ethics necessary to minimize impacts from their use of the outdoors.

   3. Follow the Outdoor Code, Leave No Trace, and Tread Lightly! principles on three outings. Develop a poster or presentation explaining how and why you followed the Outdoor Code, Leave No Trace, and Tread Lightly! Share it with a group approved by your unit leader or an individual who has completed the outdoor ethics orientation course.

4. Do the following:

   1. Meet with a land owner or manager responsible for an outdoor recreational area or habitat that you use and/or enjoy and discuss the steps that you and your crew can take to reduce adverse impacts on the recreational ecosystem.

   2. With your crew leadership, help plan and participate in a campaign to reduce the adverse impacts on the recreational ecosystem. The campaign should include both service elements (e.g., land ethic—service to the land) and outdoor ethics educational components to help educate the public about how to minimize impacts to the area.

   3. Help plan and lead either a traditional or a social media event to educate the general public on the importance of protecting the area addressed in Requirement 5 and how they can help.

Venturing Advisor Action Award Requirements

1. Do the following:

   1. Earn the Outdoor Ethics Awareness Award.

   2. Complete the BSA outdoor ethics orientation course.

   3. Participate in a discussion with your crew of how each of the four points of the Outdoor Code guides your actions when outdoors.

2. Do the following:

   1. Read the North American Skills & Ethics booklet to learn about the principles of Leave No Trace. Review the principles of Tread Lightly! Review Fieldbook chapters about Leave No Trace, using stoves and campfires, hygiene and waste disposal, and traveling and camping in special environments. Review the discussion of Leave No Trace in the Ranger Guidebook, and the foreword and chapters on Conservation Aesthetic, Wilderness, and Land Ethic in A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold. Explain in your own words what Leopold meant when he stated, “A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it does otherwise.”

   2. Serve as an Advisor for your crew in an activity that explores differing ethical viewpoints using materials from Scouting’s outdoor ethics page, Leave No Trace, or Tread Lightly!

3. Complete one of the following:

   1. Become a Leave No Trace Trainer or Tread Lightly! TREAD Trainer.

   2. Advise your crew’s leadership in planning and leading an outing that emphasizes the complete set of Leave No Trace or Tread Lightly! principles. All members of the crew participating in the outing should use outdoor ethics and the specific skills to minimize impacts from their use of the outdoors.

4. Advise your crew’s planning and participation in at least three outings where your crew can follow the Outdoor Code and practice the principles of Leave No Trace and Tread Lightly! Participate in a discussion at the end of the outings.

5. Advise your Venturers in arranging for a service project and educational campaign emphasizing outdoor ethics with a local landowner or land manager responsible for an outdoor recreational area or habitat that your crew uses and/or enjoys. The project must be approved by the land owner or manager in advance. Participate in that project. The project should lead to permanent or long-term improvements.

6. Advise your Venturers in the completion of a traditional or social media event to educate the general public on the importance of protecting the area addressed in Requirement 5 and how they can help.

7. Help at least three Venturers earn the youth Outdoor Ethics Action Award.