We leave much of our plant identification to our Pathfinder and Ranger units, who have to endure stops every two seconds as my Co-Guiders and I stop to marvel at some plant or other, telling the youth what the plant is good for and what it can tell us about the environment we are in etc.

But there are some plants you cannot wait to teach if you are going to be spending a fair amount of time outdoors in Canada! Three important identifications even a Spark should be able to make are: Poison Ivy, Wild Parsnip and Giant Hogweed.

I created this informational document that’s designed to be cut into cards to use as a game or made into a book to help our Youth learn the basics of identifying poison ivy. I hope to soon add some for the other two offenders as well. Also, check out Stop the Itch on the platform to take make this into a whole meeting!