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Forestry
Forestry
Merit Badge
Scouting America Merit Badge Hub
Requirement Updates 2026
This Merit Badge’s Requirements have recently been updated in 2025 Scouting America Requirements (33216). Please read more about “Requirements” on the Merit Badge Hub homepage. The previous version of the Merit Badge requirements can be found in Scoutbook.
Forestry
Merit Badge Overview
In working through the Forestry merit badge requirements, Scouts will explore the remarkable complexity of a forest and identify many species of trees and plants and the roles they play in a forest’s life cycle. They will also discover some of the resources forests provide to humans and come to understand that people have a very large part to play in sustaining the health of forests.
Forestry
Merit Badge Requirements
The previous version of the Merit Badge requirements can be found in Scoutbook
The requirements will be fed dynamically using the scout book integration 55
NOTE: Scouts must remember to follow the Leave No Trace Seven Principles and the Outdoor Code while on field trips and when collecting specimens. Make sure you have permission of the land manager prior to taking any samples for your collection. Collecting is prohibited in most National and State Parks. Pictures or sketches may suffice for a collection and limit impacted disturbances.
NOTE: The official merit badge pamphlets are now free and downloadable HERE or can be purchased at the Scout Shop.
NOTE: The official merit badge pamphlets are now free and downloadable HERE or can be purchased at the Scout Shop.
1.
Prepare a field notebook, make a collection, and identify 15 species of trees, wild shrubs, or vines in a local forested area. Write a description in which you identify and discuss the following:
Resources: How To Press Leaves (video)
Best Tree ID Apps Reviewed (app)
Resources: How To Press Leaves (video)
Best Tree ID Apps Reviewed (app)
- (a) The characteristics of leaf, twig, cone, or fruiting bodies
- (b) The habitat in which these trees, shrubs, or vines are found
- (c) The important ways each tree, shrub, or vine is used by humans or wildlife and whether the species is native or was introduced to the area (If it is not native, explain whether it is considered invasive or potentially invasive.)
2.
Do ONE of the following:
- (a)
Collect and identify wood samples of 10 species of trees. List several ways the wood of each species can be used.
Resources: How to Identify Wood Species (video)
Mississippi State University Wood ID Team (video) - (b)
Find and examine three stumps, logs, or core samples that show variations in the growth rate of their ring patterns. In the field notebook you prepared for requirement 1, describe the location or origin of each example (including elevation, aspect, slope, and the position on the slope), and discuss possible reasons for the variations in growth rate. Photograph or sketch each example.
Resources: Reading a Tree's Stump (video)
Aging of Trees; Studying Tree Rings (video) - (c)
Find and examine two types of animal, insect, or disease damage to trees. In the field notebook you prepared for requirement 1, identify the damage, explain how the damage was caused, and describe the effects of the damage on the trees. Photograph or sketch each example.
Resources: Ask an Arborist: How Do I Check for Tree Pests? (video)
Why You Should Stomp Every Spotted Lanternfly (video)
10 Pictures of Tree Diseases and Pests to Help You Spot Problems (website)
3.
Do the following:
Resources: Top 10 Benefits of Forestry (website)
How Forests Make Our Lives Better (video)
Resources: Top 10 Benefits of Forestry (website)
How Forests Make Our Lives Better (video)
- (a) Describe the contributions forests make to:
- (1) Our economy in the form of products
- (2) Our social well-being, including recreation
- (3) Soil protection and increased fertility
- (4) Clean water
- (5) Clean air (carbon cycling, sequestration)
- (6) Wildlife habitat
- (7) Fisheries habitat
- (8) Threatened and endangered species of plants and animals
- (b)
Tell which watershed or other source your community relies on for its water supply.
Resource: Watersheds! (video)
4.
Describe what forest management means, including the following:
- (a)
Multiple-use management
Resource: Managing Forests for Multi-Use (video) - (b)
Sustainable forest management
Resource: Serious Science: Sustainable Forests (video) - (c)
Even-aged and uneven-aged management and the silvicultural systems associated with each
Resource: Akhlaq Wani Education and Nature Series? (video) - (d)
Intermediate cuttings
Resource: Tree Thinning Explained (video) - (e)
The role of prescribed burning and related forest-management practices
Resources: Prescribed Fire Explained (video)
How Do We Minimize Risk of Catastrophic Wildfires (video)
5.
With your parent or guardian's and counselor's approval, do ONE of the following:
- (a)
Visit a managed public or private forest area with the manager or a forester who is familiar with it. Write a brief report describing the type of forest, the management objectives, and the forestry techniques used to achieve the objectives.
Resource: International Paper Managed Forest Tour (video) - (b)
With a knowledgeable individual, visit a current or past logging operation or wood-using manufacturing plant. Write a brief report describing the following:
Resource: A Possible Virtual Tour: Big Logging Equipment in Action (video) - (c)
Take part in a forest-fire prevention campaign in cooperation with your local fire warden, state wildfire agency, forester, or counselor. Write a brief report describing the campaign, how it will help prevent wildfires, and your part in it.
Resource: Your Home Can Survive a Wildfire (video)
7.
Do the following:
- (a)
Describe the consequences to forests that result from FIVE of the following elements: wildfire, absence of fire, destructive insects, loss of pollinating insect population, tree diseases, air pollution, overgrazing, deer or other wildlife overpopulation, improper harvest, and urbanization.
Resources: Wildfires (video)
How Decades of Stopping Forest Fires Made Them Worse (video)
How too Many Deer are Affecting Maryland's Forests (website)
This Tiny Beetle Is Devastating Forests in the Worst Outbreak Ever (video)
What Happens If You Cut Down All of a City's Trees? (video)
Deforestation and Diseases: Why Disrupting Ecosystems May Put Us at Risk (video)
How Do You Pollinate 40 Million Almond Trees? (video) - (b) Explain what can be done to reduce the consequences you discussed in 7(a).
- (c)
Describe what you should do if you discover a forest fire and how a professional firefighting crew might control it. Name your state or local wildfire control agency.
Resource: Fire: Be Safe by Doing the Following (website)
6.
In your camp, local recreation area (park or equivalent), or neighborhood, do ONE of the following:
Resource: Tree Risk Assessment (video)
Resource: Tree Risk Assessment (video)
8.
Visit one or more local foresters and write a brief report about the person (or persons) OR write about a forester's occupation including the education, qualifications, career opportunities, and duties related to forestry.
Resources: Forestry Degree Requirements (website)
How to Become a Forester - Forestry Jobs, Forest Ecology, and Other Environmental Jobs! (video)
Resources: Forestry Degree Requirements (website)
How to Become a Forester - Forestry Jobs, Forest Ecology, and Other Environmental Jobs! (video)
- (1) The species and size of trees harvested or used
- (2) The origin of the forest or stands of trees utilized (e.g., planted or natural)
- (3) The forest's successional stage, its future, and—if it is a past logging operation—the regeneration that is occurring, whether planted or natural
- (4) Where the trees are coming from (land ownership) or where they are going (type of mill or processing plant)
- (5) The products that are made from the trees
- (6) How the products are made and used
- (7) How waste materials from the logging operation or manufacturing plant are or were disposed of or utilized
- (a) Inventory the trees within a specific area above (campsite, road, trail, street, etc.) that may be a hazard to structures or people. Note the species and hazardous condition, and suggest a remedy (removal or trimming). Make your list available to the proper authority or agency.
- (b) Review a hazardous tree report done by a professional for this area and visit those trees and the results of the prescription to prune or remove them.
Get the Forestry Merit Badge Pamphlet
Merit Badge Pamphlets are now free and publicly available. Note: Always check stg.scouting.org/skills/merit-badges/all/ for the latest requirements.
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