Boy Scout Oliver Burke and Jamboree Scouts preserve Blackland Prairie with Hershey’s grant

Jamboree Scouts show off their wildflower seed balls which will be thrown into endangered Blackland Prairie across the Dallas metroplex

Boy Scout Oliver Burke led fellow Scouts in a service project to help preserve and protect the endangered Blackland Praire. Burke received the national Hershey Heartwarming Young Heroes grant through Youth Service of America (YSA) to conduct the community event.

With the support of the Hershey’s Heartwarming Project, YSA awarded up to $50,000 in grants for youth-led projects and community-building activities during Global Youth Service Day. Global Youth Service Day, a campaign of Youth Service America, is the longest-running annual youth participation event in the world. YSA awarded 135 Hershey Heartwarming Young Heroes grants to youth all over the United States and Canada to lead “community-building activities to foster meaningful connections and community-building activities, promote inclusion, and teach empathy.” Burke and the Jamboree Scouts were one of six Texas organizations to receive this grant.

Scout Oliver Burke holds up a sign describing the native Texas wildflower, Purple Coneflower. Scouts made Purple Coneflower seed balls to throw into the endangered Blackland Prairie ecosystem.

Burke serves as the Senior Patrol Leader of Circle Ten National Scout Jamboree Troop #1 and Life Scout with the Boy Scout Troop 577 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. Prior to the Jamboree trip, many of the Scouts were strangers to one another but the service project brought them together.

“Most of the Scouts didn’t know each other at the beginning of this project,” said Burke. “We are all from different schools and come from both rural towns and urban cities throughout North Texas; it was really tremendous how we all worked together to positively impact our local environment and make a difference in our community”.

Burke educated his fellow Jamboree Scouts about the importance of preserving the endangered Blackland Prairie, a tall grass prairie unique to North Texas as a part of Global Youth Service Day and Earth Day this year. With less than .05% of the original prairie remaining, the Blackland Prairie is considered one of the most endangered ecosystems in the world. For his service project, Burke selected eight different species of native Texas wildflower seeds that would thrive in the environment, including colorful Mexican Hat, Plains Coreopsis, Lemon Mint, Partridge Pea, Purple Cone Flower, Basketflower, Cutleaf Daisy, and Indian Blanket.

Burke and approximately 50 Scouts from across Dallas came together to create over 3,800 native wildflower seed balls. More Scout volunteers will throw the seed balls in designated pollinator patches at the Connemara Conservancy, the Northaven Trail, and other Blackland Prairies throughout Dallas.

Previously, Burke led conservation projects to stop erosion by transplanting native grasses at the Connemara Conservancy Meadow and is raising hundreds of Northern Bobwhite Quail to band and release into various Blackland Prairies across the metroplex to promote wildlife diversity in the prairies. Burke is also the only youth serving as a Trail Captian of the Northaven Trail.