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| James Eggers after attending National Jamboree, holding staff and hat awarded at Brown Sea II. |
James Eggers, BCI Director of Education
Eagle Scout and member of Order of the Arrow
Hello and welcome to Scouting for Bats! My name is James Eggers and I'm Director of Education for Bat Conservation International (BCI), the world’s oldest and largest organization dedicated to conserving the world’s bats and their ecosystems in order to ensure a healthy planet. I have been a professional conservation educator for more than twenty five years, in 19 countries, helping people speaking 53 languages. I’ve worked in zoos, nature centers, natural history museums, science museums, universities, government agencies and environmental non-government organizations. I love my career and I can thank scouting for getting me started and teaching me the basics.
My father took my family on many scout camping trips and nature walks, so my love of nature and education began even before I can remember. Through my years as a cub scout, webelo, and boy scout, I earned every badge related to nature, and my service projects were all about environmental conservation (cleaning streams, clearing trash in natural areas, etc.). As a patrol leader and senior patrol leader, I made sure that all the guys in my patrol and then in my troop earned at least two badges related to nature (usually Reptile Study and Mammal Study), because I knew it would encourage them to get outside (for physical and mental health), expose them to the variety and lure of nature, and develop a sense of responsibility to protect our natural world.
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When I went to college, I knew I wanted to study something that would help me to help other people and to protect nature. I studied Conservation Education, but I always tell young people that for almost any profession you choose, you can do it AND help animals. Conservation groups like Bat Conservation International need great biologists, but we also need great accountants, great engineers, great artists, great writers, great marketers, great teachers, and even great website developers and programmers! See our variety on BCI’s “Meet the Staff” webpage.
I hope someday to read about you, and hope you’ll join all of us who are “Scouting for Bats”!
Bob Locke, Director of Publications & Small Grants Coordinator
Life Scout
Growing up in a blue-collar neighborhood of Houston, I had few opportunities to explore the woods – or even get a good look at them. The outdoors for us was The Vacant Lot down the street. I joined the Scouts as soon as I turned 11, in 1958, because friends at school talked about the monthly camping trips.
I’ve long since forgotten the Troop number, but I will always remember those visits to the Big Thicket of East Texas, usually to what we now call ‘managed forests’ that were owned by a big paper company. Our adult leaders were, of course, World War II vets and our meetings included just a touch of military close-order drills. Our Scoutmaster had four kids, all girls, and I suspect we Scouts were, collectively, the son he never had.
It seems now to have been a much simpler time. Our troop had an old army surplus truck with benches and a canvas top, plus several large tents and a small field kitchen. We spent our camping nights 6 or 8 to a tent with blankets laid over straw spread on the ground. Cooking was a group endeavor, as was setting up and taking down the camp and cleansing the site of our presence. I really got into learning knots (with a merchant-seaman neighbor as a tutor), and find many of them useful to this day.
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But mostly I remember exploring those magical woods, usually with two or three other Scouts, but occasionally alone. After a few close encounters, I developed a fascination for snakes (including venomous ones) that I have never lost. We saw raccoons, ’possums, turkeys, coyotes, skunks, foxes, deer, a few bobcats and one ring-tailed cat, along with countless horny toads and other small creatures. We learned to connect tracks to critters. And we learned just to enjoy being in the woods with good friends when it’s so quiet all you can hear is the wind rustling the leaves – and the sound of a buck snorting or a panicky jack rabbit running for cover seems overpowering.
We moved to a small town (now a suburb) on the edge of Houston when I started high school and I joined the Explorers. The summer camps were terrific and well-planned, as were the educational outings to fossil beds and such. I ended up as a Life Scout, two merit badges short of Eagle, when I discovered other teen-aged pursuits.
But I will always remember my time in the Big Thicket with the Scouts. I became Science Writer for the Associated Press and the San Diego Tribune (along with editor posts at another newspaper and a couple of magazines) and sought out environmental stories: recovery efforts for the California condor, for example, or two unforgettable days in the desert with the world’s leading expert on the fringe-toed lizard.
For 10 years now, I’ve been running the publications department at Bat Conservation International. I’ve spent a lot of time in a lot woods since I was a Boy Scout, but I find myself recalling often the sights, sounds and smells of the Big Thicket, when the outdoors were, for me, new and magical.
Bob writes that he doesn’t have any photos of him as a Scout because it was so long ago that he didn’t think that cameras were invented yet!
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Jim “Crash” Kennedy, BCI Habitat Protection Coordinator
Eagle Scout and member of Order of the Arrow
It was 1973 and I was 12. My father was our troop’s Scoutmaster long before I was old enough to join. One of his former students (he was also a teacher) was a seasonal guide at Laurel Caverns, a nearby show cave. My dad asked the student if he knew of any wild caves that the troop could visit. The student agreed to guide us to one nearby, and I remember thinking that the experience was the coolest thing ever!
As I got older (and better equipped), I continued exploring that cave (which I eventually remapped) and several others in the area. Upon finally entering college, I was introduced to the world of organized cavers, and immediately joined the Nittany Grotto, of which I am still a life member. I also joined the National Speleological Society, became a Life Member, and was eventually recognized as a Fellow of the Society. I was caving 2–3 times a week in college, and couldn’t get enough.
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I learned about cave conservation, cave rescue, and cave survey. Soon the Pennsylvania Game Commission found out about all my cave visits and reports, and I was asked to volunteer with their biologists for two winters, guiding them into caves to count hibernating bats. The following year they had enough money to hire me seasonally, and my position eventually grew to full-time.
I worked for the PGC for 8 years before meeting Merlin Tuttle at a BCI workshop and being asked by him to move to Austin and work for him. Along those many years I worked with artificial roosts and other conservation issues, but never lost my passion for the caves and mines that got me interested in the first place. Now I look back with pride and many happy memories on all the underground habitats that I helped protect for the past 39 years.
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This photo is my and my best friend Gary Herbert both receiving our Eagle awards from District Executive Ray Braun and District Commissioner Thom Scott around February 1979
Jason Corbett, BCI Subterranean Program Coordinator
Eagle Scout and member of Order of the Arrow
I earned the rank of Eagle Scout in Troop 114, Tucson, Arizona in 1996. I started my scouting career many years earlier, having participated in both Cub Scouts and Webelos, where I earned the Arrow of Light Award before moving quickly into Boy Scouts. I stayed with my Troop until turning 18 and heading off to college to pursue my BS and MS degrees in Fish and Wildlife Management and Forestry from Northern Arizona University.
My strong beliefs in actively serving my community, state, and country led me to serve for 6 years with the Arizona Army National Guard. The skills I learned in Scouting served me well in the Army, and I continue to use them every day in my current job as the Subterranean Program Coordinator for Bat Conservation International. My position takes me across the western US in pursuit of subterranean bat habitat protection and compliments my love of wildlife and the outdoors perfectly. I am a life member of the National Eagle Scout Association, and I hope to work more closely with the BSA in the coming years.
Fran Hutchins, Bracken Bat Cave Coordinator
Eagle Scout and member of Order of the Arrow
I’ve been an Eagle Scout since June 1976, an Order of the Arrow member, and I went to the World Jamboree in Oslo, Norway in 1977. Scouting showed me the importance of teamwork and taught me values and leadership skills that I continue to use every day.
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As I was growing up in central Florida, Scouting provided the opportunity to make friends and enjoy the outdoors. Beginning with Cub Scouts and through Webelos, the camping and outdoor activities showed me the importance of protecting nature. When I was elementary school age, Cub Scouts and Webelos were full of activities and chances to get together with friends. Then I moved to Orlando, a new neighborhood and school. Scouting gave me a place to fit in and make new friends. Troop 164 was meeting a few blocks from my house, so I joined the Wolf Patrol. We did a lot of camping, sometimes twice a month during the summer and during school breaks. I earned my 50-Miler award on a 7-day hike along the Appalachian Trail on one of those Christmas breaks. I attribute my love and appreciation for the outdoors to Scouting.
C. William “Bill” Steele, Director of Alumni Relations and the National Eagle Scout Association
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I have had a love of caves since I was a little boy. When I was a 13-year-old Boy Scout I crawled up between some big rocks and emerged into a large tunnel passage that no one had ever found before. I felt like I was an explorer, and I was. I have never lost my interest and passion for caves since that day. I have been around a lot of bats and I like them. I appreciate all of the good things they do in nature, such as carrying pollen. I call bats "flying teddy bears," because that's the way I think of them. They're cute and furry. And their existence goes back many millions of years. I find them fascinating. But I also respect them and I avoid disturbing them when they are resting in a cave. That's their home, and I am just a visitor.
Scouts from different area troops work on their Wilderness Survival merit badge at Bracken Bat Cave Preserve
To complete his Eagle project, Micheal Holman from Bracken, Texas Troop 828 organized his troop to build a 400 gallon rainwater catchment guzzler and 4 picnic tables. The guzzler will provide drinking water for white-tailed deer and other wildlife
Nick Previc and Matt Vaughan from San Antonio, Texas Venture Crew 410 lead their groups of Scouts to complete two 550 gallon rainwater catchment guzzlers that will provide additional water sources for Bracken Bat Cave preserve’s wildlife
Scouts from Converse, Texas Cub Scout Pack 239 learned the value of team work while helping with trail maintenance at Bracken Bat Cave
I have had a love of caves since I was a little boy. When I was a 13-year-old Boy Scout I crawled up between some big rocks and emerged into a large tunnel passage that no one had ever found before. I felt like I was an explorer, and I was. I have never lost my interest and passion for caves since that day. I have been around a lot of bats and I like them. I appreciate all of the good things they do in nature, such as carrying pollen. I call bats "flying teddy bears," because that's the way I think of them. They're cute and furry. And their existence goes back many millions of years. I find them fascinating. But I also respect them and I avoid disturbing them when they are resting in a cave. That's their home, and I am just a visitor.
