Attorney: Boy Scout plan 'woefully inadequate'
As the financially struggling Boy Scouts sell off a growing number of campgrounds — conservationists, government officials and others are scrambling to find ways to preserve them as open space.
The land sales are filling the gap of declining enrollment and helping fund a proposed national bankruptcy settlement designed to pay thousands of victims of child sexual abuse. It’s unclear how much land belongs to the Boy Scouts, partly because it's owned by local scout councils.
But evidence in the Scouts' bankruptcy trial indicate there are about 2,000 properties that could be worth as much as $10 billion, and some of which is being sought by developers.
For over a century the Scouts and their local councils have acquired properties across the country where generations have learned to appreciate the outdoors through camping, swimming and canoeing.
Councils in states including Arizona, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have all recently sold or announced plans to sell camps.
Critics say selling camps to developers goes against the tenants of an organization that is supposed to teach environmental stewardship.
Unfamiliar with the story? Here's previous coverage:
Photos: Boys Scouts face scandal, bankruptcy
FILE-In this Tuesday Feb. 18, 2020 file photo, Paul Mones, attorney for those claiming molestation by scoutmasters or other scout leaders decades ago, discusses the filing for bankruptcy by the Boy Scouts of America during for an interview, in New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
In this Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2020 file photo, Attorneys for The Boy Scouts of America, Jessica Boelter, center, and Derek Abbott, left, return to their client's bankruptcy hearing in Wilmington, Del. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Michael Johnson, former National Youth Protection Director for the Boy Scouts of America, reacts during a news conference held to urge Congress to investigate the BSA's sex-abuse prevention programs, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, at the National Press Club in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Jeff Dion, CEO of the Zero Abuse Project and a sexual abuse survivor, displays a safety merit badge he earned as a Boy Scout at a news conference held to urge Congress to investigate the BSA's sex-abuse prevention programs, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, at the National Press Club in Washington. Standing with Dion is Michael Johnson, former National Youth Protection Director for the Boy Scouts of America. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Michael Johnson, center, former National Youth Protection Director for the Boy Scouts of America, speaks at a news conference held to urge Congress to investigate the BSA's sex-abuse prevention programs, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, at the National Press Club in Washington. Standing with Johnson are Joelle Casteix, from left, a member of the board of directors of the Zero Abuse Project and a sexual abuse survivor, Jeff Dion, CEO of the Zero Abuse Project and a sexual abuse survivor, attorney Jeff Anderson and Bridie Farrell, founder of America Loves Kids and a sexual abuse survivor. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Attorney Jeff Anderson, center, speaks at a news conference held to urge Congress to investigate the Boy Scouts of America's sex-abuse prevention programs, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, at the National Press Club in Washington. Standing with Anderson are Jeff Dion, left, CEO of the Zero Abuse Project and a sexual abuse survivor, and Michael Johnson, former National Youth Protection Director for the Boy Scouts of America. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
Jeff Dion, CEO of the Zero Abuse Project and a sexual abuse survivor, displays his Boy Scout Handbook as he speaks at a news conference held to urge Congress to investigate the Boy Scouts of America's sex-abuse prevention programs, Tuesday, Oct. 12, 2021, at the National Press Club in Washington. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
FILE - In this Feb. 12, 2020, file photo, a statue stands outside the Boy Scouts of America headquarters in Irving, Texas. On Monday, March 14, 2022, more than two years after the BSA sought bankruptcy protection amid an onslaught of child sex abuse lawsuits, a federal bankruptcy judge in Delaware convenes a trial to determine whether to approve the BSA’s reorganization plan. The plan includes a fund of more than $2.6 billion to compensate tens of thousands of men who say they were molested as children by Scout leaders and others. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File)
FILE - Patches cover the back of a Girl Scout's vest at a demonstration of some of their activities in Seattle, June 18, 2018. A federal judge, Thursday, April 7, 2022, tossed out a lawsuit in which the Girl Scouts claim that the Boy Scouts are creating marketplace confusion and damaging their recruitment efforts through their use of words such as "scouts" and "scouting." (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - A close up of a Boy Scout uniform is photographed on Feb. 4, 2013, in Irving, Texas. Attorneys for the Boy Scouts of America say protecting local BSA councils and troop sponsoring organizations from future liability for child sex abuse claims is critical to the national group’s reorganization plan. But attorneys opposing the plan told a Delaware bankruptcy judge on Tuesday, April 12, 2022, that liability releases for non-debtor third parties are neither fair nor necessary. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez, File)
FILE - This Wednesday, May 21, 2014 file photo shows merit badges and a rainbow-colored neckerchief slider on a Boy Scout uniform outside the headquarters of Amazon in Seattle. A Delaware judge is facing a host of controversial and complex issues as she weighs whether to approve the Boy Scouts of America’s bankruptcy reorganization plan. The BSA sought bankruptcy protection more than two years ago to stave off a flood of lawsuits alleging child sexual abuse by Scout leaders and volunteers. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
