Troop 31 Boy Scout Breece Ferrell, of Charleston, installs one of his squirrel nesting boxes to a tree in the Capitol Complex on Saturday. Ferrell, 17, will be promoted to Eagle Scout for his project.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The West Virginia State Capitol Complex’s newest buildings don’t require clearing a security checkpoint and being scanned by a metal detector to enter — you just have to be able to climb a tree and squeeze through a 2-inch hole.
On Saturday, Boy Scouts from Charleston’s Troop 31 installed 10 new squirrel nest boxes to provide enhanced shelter for the Capitol grounds’ most visible and best-fed wildlife species as part of troop member Breece Ferrell’s Eagle Scout project.
“I live two blocks from the Capitol, and growing up, the Statehouse lawn has been like my own yard,” Ferrell said. During recent visits to the Capitol grounds “you could see some squirrel houses kind of hidden up in the trees, but all of them had rotted out, bottom-first. Since I was looking for a more unique Eagle project, replacing these boxes seemed like a good idea.”
Ferrell’s initial offer to replace the dilapidated squirrel condos was declined, without explanation, by the General Services Administration, the agency in charge of maintaining the Capitol grounds.
Undeterred, the Eagle Scout candidate consulted with Scott Warner, with the wildlife resources of the West Virginia DNR…