Boy Scouts selling camps to pay settlements; open-space advocates scramble to keep developers from getting some

Deer Lake Boy Scout Reservation in Connecticut (AP photo)

"As the financially struggling Boy Scouts [of America] sell off a number of campgrounds, conservationists, government officials and others are scrambling to find ways to preserve them as open space," reports Pat Eaton-Robb of The Associated Press. "A $2.6 billion proposed bankruptcy settlement designed to pay thousands of victims of child sexual abuse has added pressure to an organization beset by years of declining enrollment, and the Scouts and their local councils have been cashing in on their extensive holdings, including properties where some of the abuse took place. Developers have bought up some. Preservation groups hope others can be protected and some legislators have taken notice."

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) is trying to get Congress to provide money to preserve the properties, often called "reservations." In his state, the BSA's Yankee Council is considering developers' $4.6 million offer for the 252-acre Deer Lake Boy Scout Reservation near Long Island Sound. "The council has rejected offers from two conservation groups but is negotiating with one of them that offered a revised bid," Eaton-Robb reports. Also on the block is 96 acres on one of the Finger Lakes in western New York. Fifteen tracts have already been sold in Michigan, said the leader of a conservation group there.

“Unfortunately, local Boy Scout councils are selling to the highest bidder,” Blumenthal told AP. “So, I think it is a national challenge, but it goes to the core of what scouting means and the ethos and ethic of scouting, which they may be betraying.”

Because the councils hold title to the properties, "It’s unclear exactly how much land across the United States belongs to the Boy Scouts," AP reports. "But evidence in the bankruptcy trial indicated the local councils own close to 2,000 properties that could be worth between $8 billion and $10 billion, said Timothy Kosnoff, an attorney who represents more than 12,000 claimants in the bankruptcy."