FFA Students Compete for National Championship in Forestry Event

As part of the national convention, forestry teams from each state compete in a competitive event to test their knowledge of forestry skills. Hoosier NF employees assist with the competition.

High school students from across the nation converged on Fort Harrison to participate in forestry events as part of the career development events portion of the national FFA convention.

Judi Perez, Forest Planner, was on the committee that planned the event, and Chris Thornton and Ron Ellis were among the many Indiana foresters who helped out. The event was held on Thursday October 23, and rain and cold had been forecast, just as had happened the last couple of years after the national convention was moved from Louisville to Indianapolis. This year, however, there was no rain, and the helpers who were in the woods were sheltered from the wind and didn't experience much cold.

Chris said, "After a definitely brisk morning, the weather warmed up, and it turned out to be a great day." The interviewers were definitely more exposed to the wind.

For the morning, the students divided into two groups. First, one half of the students spent 10 minutes being interviewed by a forestry professional about the management practices they would recommend on a piece of land which had stated objectives. The other half of the students competed as teams (four students per state) in forestry field activities, such as traversing and estimating tree volume. The two groups of students traded tasks for the last half of the morning.

After lunch, the students divided into four groups with only one student from a state in each group. The four groups rotated between four stations. One station required tree identification, one required equipment identification, another was TSI management decisions to reach a stated goal, and the last one was identification of tree species from wood samples.

The students were the cream of this year's crop of FFA students interested in forestry. There were teams from 37 states, approximately 145 students. The ones at the event competed earlier with others in their own chapter and then with other chapters across their state to become state champions. And there they were at Fort Harrison, competing for the national championship. They were definitely serious about the competition.

Ron and Chris were glad they had helped with the event and agreed the high school students had to work harder than they did. Ron said, "I'd have hated to have to compete in some of those events," and Chris agreed that the events were definitely challenging. Both said they had a very good day. This was Ron's third year at the event. Chris was a newcomer and said, "It was a great day. I'll be glad to do it again."