BSA Hammock policies

[Scouter811]

Well I'll chime in as I just returned from an awesome weekend of hammock camping with my troop. Now my troop is a bring your own gear troop. My scouts tend to prefer their own tents to the mildew filled camp tents. While we do maintain a couple of troop tents they rarely see any use. The buddy system doesn't to my knowledge apply to tents/sleeping outside of cubs. Boys can and should figure out their sleeping arrangements mostly without our help. We should be there to check on safety, and that's about it.

My troop does have a high adventure trip this summer and my rules are pretty simple. A scout has to hammock on a weekend trip before they are allowed to hammock at an adventure camp or summer camp. They must have a backup plan especially on their first hammock campout. We had temps down to 30 this weekend. Most boys used a combination of pad, and multiple bags to keep warm. A few are starting to invest in quilts or better yet, being thrifty and making their own. This weekend we had a cabin warmed up that they could bail out into if things went too far sideways. I only had one come to me that was cold and with a quick adjustment to his setup he was fine the rest of the weekend. Many of my hammockers were actually more prepared than the boys in tents as the tenters just assumed their normal gear would be fine on a colder weather trip.

My guys are required to provide the following before they can hammock:
Weather Protection - Rain Fly
Suspension - 1-2" tree Straps (Prefer 2")
Bug netting
Insulation (pads, bags, quilts)
Hammock

They don't have use all the parts on every trip, but they must have the core pieces just in case. Same goes for a tent though. The need a dry tent, but if they want to sleep under the stars they are allowed as long as they stay with a group and we don't have a break in two deep leadership requirements.

[dakotaross]

Pads should be OK as a substitute for a UQ in the upper ranges, say above 40F.

We want the scouts to hang a tarp so that unexpected weather doesn't ruin the weekend. Also, we kinda want them to tie knots and tarps are a good opportunity...

Here is what we are teaching for hammock LNT:

Plan and prepare: bring long enough 1”-2” webbing straps, get permits, follow park rules
Travel and camp on Durable Surfaces to avoid damage to trees and shrubs
Hang in dispersed areas with mature trees
Leave it the way you found it - don’t modify trees or bushes, or disturb the site and surroundings
Respect Wildlife and others - don’t obstruct common areas in camp or hang across trails

Straight out of the LNT handbook, except they say 1.5-2" straps - which most of us think is a little excessive given current std. The 1" straps are so available now in retail, that we really shouldn't be limiting it to wider straps (like FL) which either discourages use, or discourages using straps at all. Its only been in the last year that some vendors here have made the wider ones available.

Love that you're teaching knots. Sorry, but the pad restriction is arbitrary - do more research.

[dakotaross]

Yes. This was my troop.
I made the decision after one of my ASMs returned from outdoor leader skills training. The biggest issue discussed about hammock camping was LNT. If scouts needed to be out of the campsite to find good trees the we weren't following proper LNT. We would be enlarging our footprint, and creating erosion issues.
Also, I had boys with hammocks trying to buddy with boys who didn't. This was a problem I didn't need.
So for a time we removed hammocks all together. Peace has reigned.
We have allowed them back in the last month. We have guidelines the boys must follow.
http://bsatroop120.net/?page_id=1533

We have a camping trip this coming weekend. I hope it works out.

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One of the inherent flaws when organizations make rather arbitrary decisions on hammocking, is that they don't realize what they're already doing with tents. Tents create far more erosion than hammock users ever could. In addition, the footprint needed to accommodate flats spaces for tents is far larger than say your typical grove of trees. Is it better to continue to accommodate the LNT failure issues with tents, or in the short run to accept some minor level of failure for hammocks in order to produce less overall impact in the future?

Minimizing impact is important, but all too often we're trying to minimize the impact that we've already made. The only trace that I'm going to leave is the restoration of former tent sites to healthier ground conditions for the trees that still exist.

[jbrescue]

OK, let's take this a step that has not been mentioned. First, I agree that hammocking is better for the LNT requirements that we should all be teaching and living. Second, I like the first class idea, but we have new Scouts that hammock with no problems at all. Third, the biggest thing that has not been mentioned at all. Hammock camping is 100% YPT! There is no way to have issues at night when they are all sleeping in their own hammocks. Now, we do use 2 per tent at camp for gear and clothes. But, at night, we are all in one campsite and relatively close no matter what.