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Welcome
Welcome to the William T. Hornaday Award Conservation Project Workbook! This workbook is designed to help you
organize your thoughts and document a William T. Hornaday award conservation project. Although the verbiage in
this workbook is aimed at youth working on their bronze or silver medals, the sections and formats remain applicable
for youth earning the William T. Hornaday Badge as well. Each copy of this workbook will document only one of
your conservation projects. If you are applying for a unit award or for a youth William T. Hornaday Badge, you will
only have one project, but if you are applying for one of the youth William T. Hornaday medals, you will have several
conservation service projects. This workbook is not to be used for a William T. Hornaday adult award because
specific projects are not required; adult awards are by nomination only, not by application. Please read all the way
through this workbook before beginning your project to get a more complete picture of what will be needed. This
preparation will benefit you considerably as you plan, lead, carry out, and document your project.
In the past, the Hornaday awards application requirements suggested using the Eagle Scout Service Project
Workbook (No. 512-927) to help you organize the documentation for each of your projects. This William T. Hornaday
Conservation Project Workbook, modeled after the Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook, has been refined to add
the additional specificity that is required for the National Hornaday Committee to review your application properly.
The sections and questions have been designed to help you provide the specific information the review board
members look for; each member has over 30 years of experience in a natural resource field, and the board is very
consistent in its review of Hornaday medal applications. Use of this workbook is encouraged for all of the William T.
Hornaday youth awards, not just for the bronze or silver medals.
It is important to note that you are not required to complete this or any other workbook, but doing so will help you
document your project with the information the reviewers need. Working with your conservation advisors and/or
the council conservation or Hornaday committees will also give you very valuable assistance in understanding and
documenting a successful project for a William T. Hornaday award. Without this information, many applications
cannot be reviewed and will be sent back to the applicant for additional information or simply rejected for a lack
of data if the applicant is nearing the age limit. This workbook and the new William T. Hornaday Guidebook were
designed to reduce the occurrence of these returns and rejections.
The medals were created by Dr. William T. Hornaday, who established demanding standards with the belief that only
the most truly exceptional conservation accomplishments deserved recognition. We strive to maintain the exacting
standards Dr. Hornaday set. The Hornaday medals are designed to achieve real, long-standing, significant impacts
on the environment. You must provide clear, written evidence in your application that you did indeed plan, lead, and
carry out long-term, substantial projects, each in a different conservation category.
This workbook will help you plan, organize, and implement a William T. Hornaday award conservation project. Much
like the Eagle Scout service project, you will need to keep detailed records of your project from start to finish. Use
this workbook to describe your research, reasons for selecting this project, the decisions you made, and what
made your project successful. Tell us what you learned and how you used this project to teach others. You should
complete this workbook for each project, and submit it with supporting documentation as part of your award
application. Not every section of the workbook will be applicable for all projects; any section intentionally left blank
should be noted as such in the workbook.
In addition to the steps required in the application, supplemental documentation relating to your conservation
work (newspaper articles, letters of commendation, and photos of completed projects) is also considered by the
reviewers. Fundamentally, you must provide evidence of leadership in researching, planning, and carrying out the
projects, and show how this project influenced other people. Dr. Hornaday felt very strongly that the work you do for
any of these awards should also influence the attitudes of the communities and other youth around you.
The most successful applicants work closely with their conservation advisor, their unit leader, and the benefiting
organization to ensure that each project fulfills a conservation need and is a representation of your best efforts to
meet the high standards of the William T. Hornaday award.
Wishing you all the best as you pursue one of the Hornaday awards! Good luck, and good Scouting!