Naturalist

The Scout must complete these three activities.

1. Find out about plant and animal wildlife during any two of the seasons of the year, in one of the following sets of environments:
   1. • a piece of woodland
      • a piece of parkland
      • a piece of downland
      • a piece of moorland
      • a piece of seashore, sand-dune or rocks.
      The area looked at should be approximately 5,000 square metres (or half hectare) in size.
   2. 1. a length of hedgerow
      2. a length of roadside verge
      3. a length of stream, river or canal
      4. a small pond.
   Tell the assessor what they have discovered, using field notes, simple sketches or photographs and sketch maps.
2. Discuss with the assessor how human activities or management, for example, replacing deciduous trees with conifers, waste oil discharged by oil tankers at sea, and cutting hedges and roadside verges by machine instead of manually can all affect the wildlife.
3. Find out more about any one plant or animal, for example, a fern, grass, wild flower, tree, shrub, butterfly, moth, insect, amphibian, wild animal, bird or fish. Discuss with the assessor the results of their observations and the sources of any information used, for example, museums, books, and the Internet.