Outdoors

50-Miler Award

A group award for at least 50 consecutive miles on a trail or waterway, over at least five consecutive days, without motors. The group plans the trip, does at least 10 hours of work improving the trail or area along the way, and the unit or tour leader files the application with the council.

Awards and Recognitions Awards Conservation Outdoors Requirements

Firem'n Chit

The chit that gives a Scout the right to carry matches and lighters and build campfires. Eight responsibilities shown to your Scout leader: the handbook's rules, permits, Leave No Trace and a cleared area, safe storage, never leaving a fire, water or a shovel at hand, the cold-out test, and the codes behind it all.

Awards and Recognitions Awards Outdoors Requirements Safety

Historic Trails Award

A unit award for a historic activity: research a historic trail or site, hike or camp two days and one night along it, and work with a historic society to restore and mark it, or to stage a public event about it. The unit leader then files the application with the council.

Awards and Recognitions Awards Citizenship Outdoors Requirements

Mile Swim Award

Four requirements with a council-approved counselor: pass the swimmer test, learn how skill, stamina, stroke choice and pace affect distance swimming, qualify with a continuous quarter mile, then swim the mile over an approved course. No time limit, any strokes, no flotation.

Awards and Recognitions Awards Health Outdoors Requirements

National Outdoor Badge for Adventure

First Class (or the Sea Scout or Venturing equivalent), one of Wilderness Survival, Search and Rescue or Emergency Preparedness merit badge, then ten adventure activities from a menu of seven: long backpacking, paddling or whitewater trips, an overnight rock climb, the Historic Trails or 50-Miler Award, or a high-adventure base.

National Outdoor Awards Awards Outdoors Requirements

National Outdoor Badge for Aquatics

First Class (or the Sea Scout or Venturing equivalent), Swimming plus Lifesaving merit badge, the Mile Swim Award, one watercraft, fishing or diving badge with 25 hours on the water using it, and 50 hours of aquatics in Scouting overall, including the time from the earlier requirements.

National Outdoor Awards Awards Outdoors Requirements

National Outdoor Badge for Camping

First Class (or the Sea Scout or Venturing equivalent), the Camping merit badge, two of Cooking, First Aid and Pioneering, then 25 days and nights of Scouting camping, including six consecutive days (five nights) at an accredited resident camp.

National Outdoor Awards Awards Outdoors Requirements

National Outdoor Badge for Conservation

First Class (or the Sea Scout or Venturing equivalent), safe use of five of ten conservation tools, Environmental Science or Sustainability, Soil and Water Conservation, and one of Fish and Wildlife Management, Forestry or Mammal Study, then 25 hours of conservation work in Scouting.

National Outdoor Awards Awards Conservation Outdoors Requirements

National Outdoor Badge for Hiking

First Class (or the Sea Scout or Venturing equivalent), one of Hiking or Backpacking merit badge, one of Orienteering or Geocaching merit badge, then 100 miles of hiking, backpacking, snowshoeing or cross-country skiing in Scouting, including the badges' miles.

National Outdoor Awards Awards Outdoors Requirements

National Outdoor Badge for Riding

First Class (or the Sea Scout or Venturing equivalent), one riding merit badge with its own mileage (Cycling 100, Horsemanship 20, Motorboating 100 or Skating 20 miles), then 200 miles of riding in Scouting in all, including those miles.

National Outdoor Awards Awards Outdoors Requirements

Paul Bunyan Award

The step beyond the Totin' Chip: know the hazards and first aid for woods tools, earn the Totin' Chip and help someone else earn it, learn nine tools and use four, then spend at least two supervised hours on a conservation project with them.

Awards and Recognitions Awards Conservation Outdoors Requirements Safety Teaching

Totin' Chip

The card that gives a Scout the right to carry and use woods tools. Six responsibilities shown to your Scout leader: learn the handbook's rules, handle knife, ax and saw properly, treat them as tools, keep others safe, cut only with permission, and live by the Outdoor Code. It can be taken away.

Awards and Recognitions Awards Outdoors Requirements Safety

Distinguished Conservation Service Award

Scouting's highest youth conservation award, which replaced the Hornaday Awards in 2020. For Scouts BSA: First Class, five conservation merit badges and two more from a list of sixteen, two significant conservation projects in two categories with an adviser's approval, and a board of review by the council conservation committee.

Awards and Recognitions Awards Conservation Outdoors Requirements

Swimming Merit Badge

Nine requirements, twenty-five parts, and one of them is a gate: the swimmer test comes before six of the other eight, because the badge says so in advance rather than leaving it to be worked out.

Eagle-Required Merit Badges Eagle Required Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Weather Merit Badge

Twelve requirements, nine of them explanations and drawings. Three take arranging: a week-long weather log from an instrument you make, or a visit to a weather professional; a five-minute safety talk to a group, with the outline approved first; and discussing the safety rules with your family.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements Safety STEM

Small-Boat Sailing Merit Badge

Nine requirements, three gates. The swimmer test stands in front of everything but requirement 1; requirement 4 says "before going afloat" and requirement 5 says the wind work comes before setting sail, both of which point at the ten-part requirement 6. And the boat itself has to qualify: capsizable, able to sail to windward, and not a sailboard.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Snow Sports Merit Badge

Requirements 4 and 5 both say "the option you choose in requirement 7", so the choice printed seventh has to be made fourth. And only two of the four options state an adaptive alternative.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Surveying Merit Badge

Eight requirements, and two of them are the same afternoon: requirement 4 levels from the corner markers set up for requirement 2, so both need the counselor's five-sided lot still standing, while requirement 3, numbered between them, is map drawing done indoors afterwards. The counselor supplies the site and the instruments, so nothing can start until a field session is arranged, and requirement 5 needs a property approved and then a deed fetched from a courthouse.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Sustainability Merit Badge

Nine requirements, six of which are choices: five "do one of three" and one "do two of six". Answer them and two-thirds of the branches disappear; two of the ones that remain are measured in weeks.

Eagle-Required Merit Badges Eagle Required Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Water Sports Merit Badge

Six requirements and one of them is a whole day behind a boat. Requirements 1 and 2 are open to anybody; the swimmer test at requirement 3 gates 4 through 6; and 4, 5 and 6 all need a boat, a driver and an observer, so they are one session rather than three.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Whitewater Merit Badge

Twelve requirements, and the third is a gate over the other nine: earn the Canoeing merit badge if you are in a canoe, or the Kayaking merit badge if you are in a kayak, before doing requirements 4 through 12. That one answer also decides requirement 4's option and requirement 7, and if you choose a tandem canoe, it doubles requirement 10.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Wilderness Survival Merit Badge

Ten requirements, and the one that decides how long the badge takes is requirement 5(e): improvise a natural shelter and spend a night in it. That is a campout, a permitted site and a forecast, buried as the fifth letter of the fifth requirement. Requirement 6 (three fires by three methods, none of them matches) is the other one that costs more than it reads.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements

Wildland Fire Management Merit Badge

Eleven requirements, most of them discussions. Three take arranging: a demonstration with three wildland fire hand tools, a choice of five ways to take action that each need a place or a person, and a suppression-tactics exercise that reuses the diagram from requirement 5(c).

Elective Merit Badges Conservation Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements Safety

Rowing Merit Badge

Nine requirements, of which requirement 2 names four others by number and gates all of them: the Scouting America swimmer test must be passed before requirements 4, 5, 6 and 7. Rowing is the aquatics badge that does not print that test, so what it asks for is found elsewhere. Requirements 1, 3, 8 and 9 are seventeen dry steps the gate does not touch, requirement 4 offers an afternoon or a competitive season, and two of its five knots appear nowhere else in Scouting.

Elective Merit Badges Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements Safety

Reptile and Amphibian Study Merit Badge

Ten requirements, and the one that decides the shape of the badge is requirement 8: a month with an animal in your own custody, or three months of weekly visits to one in somebody else's. The prohibitions that govern it (no venomous reptiles, no protected species, no collecting in most parks) are in a standing note above the requirements rather than in any numbered one.

Elective Merit Badges Animals Conservation Merit Badges Outdoors Requirements