Land Use

Fallout from Boy Scouts Sex-Abuse Settlement Leaves Future of High-Value Rhode Island Open Space Uncertain

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The Buck Hill Scout Reservation in Burrillville, R.I., is 1,600 acres of mostly forested land. (Frank Carini/ecoRI News)

BURRILLVILLE, R.I. — A few days before Christmas last year, Bill Eccleston and Rich Dionne went snowshoeing, starting out from the Pulaski State Park and Recreational Area in Glocester. They followed the trail north for a few hours and then debated whether to turn back or keep going to the Buck Hill Scout Reservation in the village of Pascoag. They decided to head back, but the conversation got them thinking about the future of the 1,600-acre property in the northwest corner of Rhode Island.

The nature enthusiasts were aware that the Boy Scouts of America were being sued over sex-abuse allegations and had already filed for bankruptcy.

Seven months later, on July 1, the 111-year-old organization reached an $850 million settlement with tens of thousands of people, over decades, who say they were sexually abused when they were Scouts.

The settlement, which came after the national organization filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 while facing mounting legal costs over the abuse claims, is one of the largest of its kind in a child sexual abuse case in U.S. history, according to The Washington Post. The story noted local councils, like the Boy Scouts of America Narragansett Council, are expected to contribute to the settlement fund.

Boy Scouts of America has estimated the likely payout potential of the abuse claims at a range of $2.4 billion to $7.1 billion, while a committee representing victims has valued the total claims at more than $100 billion, according to The New York Times.

The Boy Scouts of America’s national organization has agreed to contribute $250 million to the fund, The New York Times reported. The brunt of the settlement would be paid by the 250 local councils, which were asked to contribute $500 million in cash and properties. Local councils can also add another $100 million, funded with contributions that would have originally gone to a pension plan for former executives and employees, which the Scouts say is overfunded, according to The New York Times story.

The Boy Scouts of America Narragansett Council, which serves all of Rhode Island and some of Massachusetts and Connecticut, operates and/or owns nine properties. Some of the properties are a collection of different parcels.

Six of the council’s properties are in Rhode Island, including the Buck Hill Scout Reservation on Wakefield Pond and the 1,800-acre Yawgoog Scout Reservation in Hopkinton.

Dionne and Eccleston’s snowshoe conversation back to Pulaski State Park revolved around the future of the Buck Hill Scout Reservation and the Yawgoog Scout Reservation, both of which are part of a regional wildlife corridor.

Both men, outspoken opponents of the rejected fossil-fuel power plant that had been proposed for the woods of Burrillville, are concerned one or both of the high-profile Boy Scout properties could be sold to private interests.

They fear waterfront houses will be built on Boy Scout property in what is now a lightly developed area around Wakefield Pond. They’re concerned the Buck Hill Scout Reservation could be turned into a private hunting and fishing club with all the requisite amenities.

“What’s going to happen to the huge Buck Hill and Yawgoog holdings here?” Eccleston asked. “Aren’t they going to be liquidated to pay off the settlements?”

Another question he and Dionne have is: Will the state of Rhode Island or a nongovernmental organization like The Nature Conservancy be able to buy and preserve these largely forested tracts of open space?

Eccleston noted the Buck Hill Management Area is geographically critical to the forest ecology of the tri-state corner, “like a puzzle piece to physically link together” publicly owned forests in Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Buck Hill Scout Reservation is 1.5 miles from the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management’s Buck Hill Management Area.

The North Providence resident said the Yawgoog Scout Reservation is likewise critical to the Arcadia Management Area and Pachaug State Forest tract in southwest Rhode Island and southeast Connecticut.

They said it would be intolerable if the Buck Hill and/or Yawgoog properties were sold to a residential developer — “no matter how said developer would try to spin it.”

“The Buck Hill Boy Scout Reservation, over 1,600 acres of forest and undeveloped waterfront on pristine Wakefield Pond, is a crucial link in a North-South chain of state-owned public land totaling over 26,000 acres in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island,” Eccleston wrote in an email to ecoRI News. “Sell that land to a residential developer and you’ve broken that Tri-State link and snapped that major corridor for wildlife migration.”

A spokesperson for the Boy Scouts of America Narragansett Council told ecoRI News, “At this point, it would be premature to speculate about any effect that the national bankruptcy could have on Scout camps in Rhode Island.”

New York’s Greater Hudson Valley Council addressed the settlement situation in its June 25 newsletter, noting selling property is a likely response.

“As the Council faces a multi-million-dollar payment, please understand that as a non-profit organization most of our worth is in our assets, which is our property. It is difficult to foresee a way of making this payment without selling a property,” according to a letter signed by four people in council leadership positions.

The Greater Hudson Valley Council has since put up three large properties for sale to settle its portion of the settlement payouts.

John Torgan, state director of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in Rhode Island, told ecoRI News his chapter hasn’t had specific discussions about the potential fallout from the Boy Scouts of America settlement, but he said the pandemic-forced closure of summer camps and campsites last year made the staff take notice of important open space that may need protection because of financial difficulties.

Torgan said buying development rights to properties to help organizations from going out of business is always an option, for both TNC and property owners. He also noted TNC and the Boy Scouts of America have a history of working together.

In 2012, the Rhode Island Department of Environmental Management, in partnership with TNC, bought 189 acres of land in Burrillville, near the Buck Hill and George Washington management areas, from the Boy Scouts of America Narragansett Council.

In the press release announcing the sale, Terry Sullivan, then the state director for TNC Rhode Island, is quoted, “The forests in the northwest of our state provide so many benefits … including wonderful recreation opportunities, protection of freshwater supplies and room for wildlife to thrive.”

Torgan said TNC has priority criteria for buying properties or their development rights such as: Are there endangered or threatened species on the property? Is it near other protected land? Is it ecologically important? Is it accessible to the public?

“It’s important that places that are special to people and important to nature are protected,” he said.

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  1. Very thorough article on a vital issue. Just one correction: The map displayed was not my creation, but a group creation of Keep Rhode Island Beautiful, an organization playing a critical publicity role in opposing the Invenergy power plant.

  2. Fortunately, several of these properties, including Yawgoog, are owned by R.I.B.S. (RI Boy Scouts, the proto-council before Narragansett Council was established) and not actually by Narragansett Council, although I believe some of the more recent acquisitions may be council property. As far as I understand, any property owned by R.I.B.S. is protected from liquidation/being sold off. Hopefully that remains the case.

    Source: long-time CY staff and Yawgoog Alumni Association member

  3. This is all speculation, and by my math, R.I. Boy Scouts (in some form or another) may have to pony up about $2 million.
    Selling Camp Yawgoog, one of the premiere Scout summer camps in the United States, is a non-starter, I imagine. With girls now joining Scouts USA in droves, a "new" Yawgoog will need to be created, and probably will be.
    So that may put Buck Hill in the crosshairs, but please remember this: The Boy Scouts of America and environmentalist readers here are on the same page. Scouts have been taught to be good stewards of the environment long before the the 1960s environmentalism (Clean Water and Air acts) were passed. I doubt Boy Scouts of America will go willy nilly into selling to developers.
    Personally, I’d be more afraid of them selling to solar farm developers who are clear-cutting our woodlands. How dumb is that??
    Perhaps environmental groups should get proactive and sit down with Scouts and make their feelings known. Can they help, perhaps? Can they work together in some way? I hope so. Let’s not wait until it’s too late.

  4. To Tom’s point, when the Narragansett Council sold 189 particularly sensitive acres of its Buck Hill Reservation to DEM in 2012—rare species habitat—the Council chairman, John H. Mosby, was quoted in DEM’s press release saying, "We are pleased to collaborate with the Department of Environmental Management to preserve this important habitat and protect the many rare species living in this part of the state. The Boy Scouts of America has always been a leader in conservation, and has been teaching our Scouts about Leave No Trace camping since 1910, so it is only natural that we would work with the DEM to put those ideals into practice in Rhode Island. As one of the largest land conservation organizations in Rhode Island, we are proud to be able to continue our century-old tradition of providing protected environments for our Scouts to enjoy and learn about through our Scouting educational programs."

    We all hope the Scouts mission will continue. If it can’t at Buck Hill, the question becomes one of how to fund a friendly purchase of some sixteen hundred additional acres, or whatever portion of that.

  5. In regards to boy scout land around Wakefield pond. RI and CT. They are deforesting about all the property. Logging and not in an ethical way. Many hundreds and thousands of trees cut down and left on the ground. I believe the boy scout code is leave a light footprint, leave no trace. The complete opposite is happening. Bad evidence of this is everywhere. Especialy on Munyon rd. Woods rd coming out of George Washington state forest. Much of this land was logged off just a few years ago. This practice should be stopped. May be to late for this land. Hopefully other lands will not be destructed!

  6. Maybe boy scout land should be put in trust. State or federal land so they and everyone else can use and enjoy nature. Not destroy the land for money

  7. Camp Yawgoog and the Buck Hill Scout Reservation are NOT owned by Narragansett Council. They are owned by The Rhode Island Boy Scouts, a separate trustee entity. They are not associated with the law suit settlement and are protected.

  8. Scout pledge, Conservation pledge. "I give my pledge as an American to save and faithfully to defend from waste the natural resources of my country- its soil and minerals, it’s forest, water and wildlife "

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