With the Ute Park fire having engulfed large swaths of Philmont Scout Ranch – the largest camp run by the Boy Scouts of America and the world’s largest camp for youths – it oddly manifests the cultural firestorm consuming the Boy Scouts of America and its 2.3 million members.

Just as thousands of acres have been lost at camp, those 2.3 million are all that remain of what was once the world’s largest voluntary youth organization.

Efforts have been made to stifle the exodus of Scouts. In 2013, the Boy Scouts of America caved to pressure and welcomed openly gay boys into its ranks. Two years later, it did the same for its leaders, moves that were jointly praised for restoring “the social relevancy of one of this country’s great cultural institutions.”

Before the change, liberal activists were pounding the gates, toting slogans like “homophobia” and “discrimination,” saying that if only the Boy Scouts of America was more inclusive – if only it increased its “relevancy” – its membership crisis would subside. That prophecy remains unfulfilled.

Even as the Boy Scouts of America plans to open its doors to girls next February, its numbers continue to falter.

After the change, several religious and conservative partners promised their departure. Some followed through, leaving thousands of troops and hundreds of thousands of Scouts without a charter to speak of.

Before 2013, scouting membership averaged a 3 percent loss per year. In 2013, membership dropped by six percent. It has yet to stabilize.

This decline forebodes the complete downfall of a program that has taught generations of boys in being morally straight men. To be trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, and kind is just half their law, and their oath is to do their duty to God and country while helping other people at all times. Named by Calvin Coolidge as “comprehensive,” “a formula for developing moral and spiritual character,” the loss of these accompanies that of a moral foundry that once incorporated over 4 million members.

Such a loss will surely come if the number of Scouts does not rebound, and would leave a gaping hole the shape of leadership training, career readiness, community service and outdoor living.

With the entrance of girls into the ranks comes a chance that members could come and the organization could be saved. But the Boy Scouts of America will effectively cease to exist. As of now, it is up to the soon-to-be Scouts BSA to fill the hole that is looming. But to do that, it will need the help of more than boys.

Ironically, like it or not, the future of the Boy Scouts – and perhaps that of an entire generation of American youth – is in the hands of the girls.

THE GAZETTE