As Scouting had reached out to special needs and inner-city young people during the 1970s and 1980s,

it had created a variety of in-school Scouting programs. In 1991, the BSA created Learning for Life as a separate organization to coordinate those programs and sharpen their focus on character, leadership, citizenship, and life skills.

Cub Scout Placing Flag at a Veterans' Cemetary

Seven years later, Learning for Life expanded to include all of the BSA’s career-awareness Explorer posts, many of which were affiliated with police and fire departments. What remained of Exploring (including its oldest component, Sea Scouting) became known as Venturing. With its unprecedented program options, Venturing would quickly become the fastest growing segment of Scouting. Five years after its creation, it boasted a membership of more than 288,000 young men and women.

Florida Sea Base

BSA officials worked on two Boy Scout handbooks during the 1990s. The tenth edition of The Boy Scout Handbook appeared in 1990, bringing the total number of copies printed since 1910 to nearly 34 million. Three years later, the BSA’s World Friendship Fund helped the Scouting movement in the former Soviet Union produce its first Scout handbook since the 1917 Russian Revolution ended Scouting in that country.

In 1998, the BSA adopted Leave No Trace guidelines for protecting the environment while conducting outdoor activities. In the ensuing years, many Scout volunteers would go on to serve as Leave no Trace master educators, ensuring that future generations of Scouts could continue to enjoy—and protect—the natural world.

 
(Primary sources: BSA 2010 Decades Fact Sheet - 1990)