{"id":55408,"date":"2015-04-13T00:09:19","date_gmt":"2015-04-13T07:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/?p=55408"},"modified":"2015-04-13T00:09:19","modified_gmt":"2015-04-13T07:09:19","slug":"speak-for-the-trees-merit-badge-beginner-level","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.raisingjane.org\/journal\/55408","title":{"rendered":"Speak for the Trees Merit Badge, Beginner Level"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\tThe adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our<\/span> Sisterhood Merit Badge program<\/span><\/span><\/a>, now with\u00a06,346 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far\u20149,010 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Wondering who I am? I\u2019m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my<\/span> former life<\/span><\/span><\/a> \u2026\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

For this week\u2019s Outpost\/Speak for the Trees Beginner Level Merit Badge<\/span><\/a>, I got a perfectly perfect excuse to visit my bestie at the Bureau of Land Management. Sometimes, she forgets we\u2019re besties, but I always remind her with a peppy hello (and a latte).<\/p>\n

Being BFFs with a nature and wildlife guru is way cool, girls. I cannot recommend it highly enough, and I totally encourage you to take a latte over to your local BLM and test my theory. Sadly, Debbie was in a fish-naming meeting (very important, very hush-hush), so I left her coffee on her desk and took what I came for: a handy-dandy pamphlet on local trees.<\/p>\n

Foliage. Saplings. Bushes. Greenery. Vegetation. Shrubs. From the itty to the Redwood, I was finally going to learn a little something about trees, and I was excited to further my Verdure Education, so to speak.<\/p>\n

\"trees\"<\/p>\n

Since I\u2019m a bit of a Visual\/Kinetic Learner, I decided to combine my two requirements for this badge into one nice, long walk. See, I could have read my pamphlet at home and then <\/em>go for my walk to identify the trees, but I have something of a short-term memory. Not to mention, my ADOS* can rear its head when I least expect it.<\/p>\n

I didn\u2019t think my process through, obviously, since I spent half the time walking into <\/em>the trees I was trying to identify as I studied, but no matter. Some people are tree huggers \u2026 I\u2019m a tree collider.<\/p>\n

Trees I found and can now identify proudly:<\/p>\n