How Can You Help?

Milestone 3: Be on the Outdoor Kids Helper Team!

NATURE TRAIL

• Help a friend reach a milestone.
• Clean up a park, neighborhood or school playground.
• Start 10 water-saving habits at your home and write them in your journal.
• Plant a Texas Wildscape.
• Plant a butterfly garden using native Texas plants for a nursing home or community center.
• Help with a Master Naturalist project.
• Create a web page about your community.
• Build nesting boxes, bat boxes or bird feeders.
• Improve a local fish habitat by clearing litter, adding structure, or managing the aquatic plants.
• Volunteer to help a biologist with a research project.
• Research and give a report on Texas wildlife.
• Stencil storm drains with a conservation message about water pollution.
• Become a Texas Nature Tracker.
• Have an adult help you do a Project WILD activity with little kids.
• Develop a trail guide for a nature trail.
• Develop signs for plant identification on nature trails.
• Help a wildlife manager remove exotic or other unwanted plants from a natural area.
• Conduct demonstrations during park or nature center tours.
• Clean-up nature trails and park picnic grounds.
• Plant a native tree for your school or park.
• Plant native wildflowers.
• Make a nature video or slide show to share with someone.
• Begin a recycling program at home, school, etc.
• Help to create a teacher packet about a park or nature center.
• Teach another person some of the interesting things you learned while reaching Milestone 2.
• Volunteer at Texas Wildlife Expo.

HISTORY TRAIL

• Research and make toys and games played in Texas years ago.
• Give a report at a school or community library about a local park or historic site.
• Start a Blazing New Trails reading club.
• Help raise money for a special historic restoration project in your community.
• Record your community and family history.
• Help a park ranger or museum curator with a presentation by preparing, handing out, and cleaning up materials.
• Help with Texas Archeology Awareness Month.
• Volunteer to help at cultural events during Black History Month, Cinco de Mayo celebrations, etc..
• Have a neighborhood parade celebrating everyone's ethnic background. Make costumes and have ethnic snacks!
• Help with Texas History Day.
• Put on a play in your neighborhood or library about a special event in your community's history.
• Volunteer at an historic home or site.
• Interview senior citizens about what it was like when they were young. Give your tapes to the local library or historical society.
• Write an article for your school paper or newsletter about a local historical event, figure, or community legend.
• Research your community's origin and create a cultural time line.
• Volunteer to work at a "living history museum"
• Help plan and built a float for a parade.
• Create a display on folk medicines and folk remedies.
• Have a book drive to build a library at a park, nature center, or historic site.
• Create a time period flower, herb, or vegetable garden.
• Make a video or slide show of a historic site. Share it with people who cannot visit the site.
• Help to build ramps and other structures at historic sites for use by persons with disabilities.
• Be the "eyes" for the visually challenged and take them on a tour of a historic site.

RECREATION TRAIL

• Teach someone how to use binoculars and how to identify three wild birds.
• Take a friend fishing.
• Teach someone a fishing knot.
• Start a fishing club.
• Create an Outdoor Survival Kit for you and your family (explain its parts to a park ranger).
• Teach someone how to be Safe and Smart Outdoors.
• Set up and operate a fishing line recycling program.
• Assist in a hunter, boater, or angler education class.
• Make a sign about boating safety for a marina.
• Create posters for Hunter or Boater Education with newspaper clippings of boating and hunting accidents and place them in public places.
• Repair a hiking or biking trail.
• Volunteer to check and clean or repair camping equipment at home or for your scout troop. Make sure it's ready for your next trip.
• Design a flier for primitive campsite areas that includes tips on choosing a campsite, safety tips, and waste management tips.
• Make a comedy video with your friends on "How not to setup a campsite" and show it to your scout troup.
• Make up some catchy phrases like "Don't be a pain in the boat" or "Litter is unlAWFUL" and post them in camping and boating areas.
• Teach someone how to clean and package fish and other game for proper storage or freezing.
• Post signs to help advertise a boater or hunter education class.
• Recycle spent cartridges at a local shooting range.
• Help a game warden with an educational project.
• Make a poster about the contribution sportsmen have made to conservation and post it in your school, community library, or local sporting goods store.
• Volunteer to do data collection at sites during hunting season.
• Make lunch for your family or friends the next time you go outdoors.
• Volunteer to help at the hunting or fishing exhibits at the Texas Wildlife Expo