ASSATEAGUE — A group of local Boy Scouts from the Ocean City-Berlin area last week completed a service project that will enhance the landscape surrounding the Assateague Island National Seashore visitor’s center complex.
The scouts, from Troop 225 from the Berlin-Ocean City area, completed the service project as Assateague last Friday. The National Park Service has been working during the past few years to convert several managed garden beds in the area of the visitor center, the parking areas and the environmental education complex to natural, lower-maintenance plantings.
In cooperation with the Maryland Coastal Bays Program, the local boy scouts pitched in last Friday and planted 12 native trees, and roughly two dozen native shrubs during the project. The MCBP donated the native plants for the project, which included American sycamore, river birch, tulip poplar, and black oak, while the scouts from Troop 225 provided the labor necessary to get the plants in the ground.
“Making even small changes to any landscape by planting native trees and shrubs can provide significant benefits to birds, pollinators and other wildlife,” said Assateague Island National Seashore Chief of Resource Management Bill Hulslander. “And planting a tree just makes you feel good.”
