Paul Schuber, a 16-year-old junior at Kellenberg Memorial High School, recently completed the identification and mapping of the entire community of trees within the boundaries of Mineola on his way to the highest rank in Scouting, Eagle Scout.

Accomplishing this task, Schuber supports the Mineola Board of Trustee's adoption of a tree preservation and protection law.

With a detailed map of the size and location of the tree population of Mineola, the village can now enforce their law and monitor the trees as they stand.

This is important according to Schuber because trees provide shade, oxygen and an all around nicer look to the community. Said Schuber, "They make the neighborhood a very nice neighborhood."

The entire project took about a year to accomplish in full. Eight months went into the writing of the project proposal in the preparation of the Eagle Scout project and two months of recording the information they learned.

Schuber led a group of about 16 boys for three days of actual mapping.

After acquiring a large map of the village and its trees from the village hall, the Scouts took six hours a day on two separate days to create little maps of each area of Mineola.

The following two days were spent transferring the information collected on the little maps to the big map.

"I think it would probably be very accurate," said Schuber of his maps' authenticity.

Schuber and his team found that there were 1,413 trees with a diameter of 1 to 3 inches, 1074 trees with a diameter of 3 to 6 inches, 954 trees with a diameter of 6 to 12 inches, 1305 trees with a diameter of 12 inches or larger for a total of 4,746 Mineola owned trees.

With his project completed and recognized by the village for its success, all that is left is for Schuber to prepare his speech for the Eagle Scout Ceremony to be held Friday, March 5 at 7:30 p.m. at the Mineola Village Hall, 155 Washington Avenue.

At 16 years of age, Schuber earned Eagle Scout honors earlier than most, but he planned it this way fearing that the demands of high school would give him little time to spend on Scouting.

In Kellenberg, Schuber participates in sports such as cross country, winter and spring track, wrestling and golf. He works on the school newspaper called The Phoenix, and ETV where he learns about broadcasting and communications.

As a preview of his speech Schuber offered thanks to his mother, father, grandmothers, scoutmasters and fellow Scouts. "I wouldn't be an Eagle Scout without their help," said Schuber.

He said he was drawn to Scouting because of the valuable lessons he knew he could learn. The future pharmacist, surgeon or pediatrician could only benefit from learning first aid at an early age.

Wanting to not only participate in medicine, but lead in his chosen field, the chance to learn the lessons of leadership, like communication and to listen to advice from his teammates, has further strengthened Schuber.

All the while he hopes he has inspired younger Scouts to follow in his footsteps just as he was inspired to follow the trail to Eagle Scout, by the those who came before him.

All the benefits he has learned from Scouting have made a lasting impression on the young man as well as his family.

"He is a good boy and he loves the Boy Scouts," said his grandmother Margaret Samson, "I hope he keeps it up."