I’m a bit late to this story, but I wanted to post it for those who may not have heard about it.
Citing financial turmoil, the Boy Scouts of America is exploring the full or partial sale of Pouch Camp.
The GNYC press release goes on to state…
with ongoing efforts to secure a conservation easement the preferred arrangement for Scouts and the community. The camp is one of only two key assets that can be strategically
leveraged to ensure the Council’s financial stability, as necessitated by steep declines in corporate and community funding amid rising operational and outreach costs.
So while a conservation easement would be the ideal (Where NYC or NYS pays the Scouts to keep the land undeveloped) there is no guarantee that this would be the outcome.
There was also a rally to save Camp Pouch on December 12:
In an attempt to prevent a beloved piece of Island history from falling into the clutches of private developers, approximately 1,500 Scouts and supporters of William H. Pouch Scout Camp braved the cold yesterday evening to rally against the potential sale of the Sea View site.
A FaceBook page has also been created to Save Camp Pouch.
It would be a real tragedy if OUR Camp Pouch were sold. It is the only Scout Camp in NYC. Pouch has served the GNYC Scouting program for 60 years! Please sign the online petition at http://www.savepouch.com . Please also join the facebook pages to show support.
Closing William Pouch Scout Camp will hurt every GNYC Boy Scout Troop that does not have a committee of parents with enough cars to travel out of the city to go camping. It’s bad enough that troops in this situation are basically limited to Pouch and Alpine. Pouch and Alpine are extremely run down and overused over the years. How can you have Scouting without Scout Camps? GNYC only has one camp in the five boroughs as Rich Ruggiero points out. If GNYC does not want to decrease the membership of its inner city Scout Troops, I strongly suggest that they find other means besides closing the only Scout Camp in NYC. Think of the negative effect that this will have on Alpine. Most people have at least two pairs of shoes. Does GNYC want to walk around with only one or expect parents to drive up to TMR for an overnight hike?
If they close Camp Pouch, that will leave only Alpine Scout Camp to service all of the Greater New York City Council (somehow ironic that it isn’t even in New York State). They sold off Camp Kaufman, which they owned outright, because they claimed they couldn’t afford to keep operating it, and now Camp Pouch is in the cross-hairs. There seems to be fewer and fewer district offices. Are there more “Professional Scouters”? Just where DOES the money go? Sadly, with the mainstream media so opposed to Scouting since it does not embrace their pro-homosexual agenda, proper govermental support is highly unlikely. Funding is either going to have to come from other sources, or creatively accomplished through the Scouting organization itself. Perhaps a conservative philanthropist who recognizes the intrinsic patriotism and ethic inspired by Scouting and the long-term value in urban boys having wilderness campgrounds available to them might, be motivated to make a donation to save Camp Pouch. In any case, I wouldn’t count on a financially bankrupt state government run by liberals to help out morally straight, patriotic Boy Scouts all that much.