That’s part of their end of a deal to restore forest lands the Scouts apparently set fire to.
A local chapter of the Boy Scouts of America has agreed to pay $330,000 and plant 9,000 tree seedlings to settle a state lawsuit over a wildfire that burned 14,200 acres, officials said.
”With the cash component and these other elements we think that’s a substantial recovery for the taxpayers,” Utah Assistant Attorney General Mike Johnson said Tuesday.
The state alleged in its lawsuit that the wildfire started at a campsite where 17 Scouts, ages 12 to 14, were working on a wilderness-survival badge in the Uinta Mountains in eastern Utah. There were two 15-year-old counselors but no adults present at the campsite.
300k sounds like a lot of cash for a Scout troop to pony up, but they could have bigger problems: the federal government, which spent $12 million fighting the fire, also has sued to recoup its costs.
That is some seriously sloppy reporting at the NYT. Boy Scouts don’t have “chapters”, so there is no way of telling who the judgment went against. This is especially amazing since the BSA really has been in the news on and off for the past few years. Even the happy news beat should be getting pounded with press releases about this summer’s centenary of the founding of Scouting in the UK. You think they could have one person sort out troop/council/national and commit that to a cheat sheet.
Luckily, we have more competent reporting at the local level. An AP story explains that the Great Salt Lake Council and the national BSA were sued. That council one of the largest in the US, and though $300K isn’t pocket change, they can afford it better than others. The national council has liability insurance, I’m sure. In fact, one of the major advantages of outings done as Boy Scouts
instead of on your own is the insurance.
http://old.heraldextra.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=58166
A Boy Scout troop also has a “charter organization”, which is sort of a franchise operator for the program. Where the article says “LDS Church-sponsored”, that is the charter org. They’ve been sued, too.
Here is an article from two months after that 2002 fire, talking about continuing fire safety problems with Scouts in the area.
http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/pennsburydc/newsarticle34.htm
If you are curious, I searched for: boy scout uinta forest fire
Walter: Thanks for the links and the context. The story was actually an Associated Press report posted to the Times’ Web site, so the shoddiness was the AP’s blame far more than the Times, which like most papers posts a wire service fee unedited by its own staff. (Many of us in the editing trade rue this reality, but it’s become part of the biz).
It looks like the NYT managed to edit out all mentions of the Great Salt Lake Council, thus confusing the matter. I’m sure that was an accident, but it made the story ambiguous. A longer version of the AP story is here: http://kutv.com/topstories/local_story_065191347.html
Interestingly, they didn’t just lop off the grafs at the end, so they had a chance to fix it.
I’m sure my local paper gets this right every time, especially now that their staff is aware of it. 🙂