Girl Scouts forest for sale in Maryland sparks protest in its ranks

By Ellie Silverman
May 27, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EDT



Rishima Singh, Sienna McIntyre, Nethra Purushothaman and Miraya Bhonde in front of the Jug Bay area, near Marlton forest, in June 2022. (Courtesy of Alamelu Deivanayagam) (Family photo)

Nethra Purushothaman, 14, saw that her Girl Scouts council was considering selling hundreds of acres of forest in Prince George’s County to developers and thought of the lessons she has learned since she was a 6-year-old Daisy: Take care of the planet. Clean up after yourself. Use resources wisely. ... This idea, she said, did not seem to align with those beliefs.

Nethra, of Herndon, decided to start a petition urging Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital to instead sell to a group dedicated to conservation. Soon, three fellow members of troop 153 in Fairfax County, decided to help too. They knew the big climate group, the Sierra Club, had launched its own petition, but they thought that just maybe the adults weighing this sale would listen to the girls in their ranks.

The girls’ online appeal, which Nethra said launched in November 2022, has since garnered more than 1,200 signatures. Two months later, Nethra and her friends met with the then-Girl Scouts Nation’s Capital CEO and have continued to advocate that this land be conserved, rather than sold for development. Through the process, the girls said they have learned how to make their voices heard, stand up for what they believe in and hold those in power accountable to their purported values.

“Girl Scouts has a tree pledge and all these nature, environmentally-friendly things. And by selling this forest to developers, they’re kind of going back on all those policies,” Nethra said. “If they’re teaching us all these skills our whole lives, we feel like they should be following them too.”

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By Ellie Silverman
Ellie Silverman covers protest movements, activism and local news. At The Post, she has also covered local crime and courts. She has previously reported on retail, breaking news and general assignment stories for the Philadelphia Inquirer, her hometown paper. She graduated from the University of Maryland, where she reported for the Diamondback. Twitter https://twitter.com/esilverman11