Several students and FFA advisors have been at Florida's 82nd annual FFA Forestry Camp, which has been held at O'Leno State Park since its inception. Rangers and foresters instructed the students on topics such as dendrology, timber cruising, map interpretation, bugs, disease and rot, compass and pacing, general knowledge, hydrology, BMP's, tools, fire, forest products, and probably a few that I have omitted.
How was it? The Santa Fe River was open to swimming. This always makes camp more tolerable. Some years the bacteria levels in the water are too high and swimming is prohibited and other years the flow rate is too high to safely swim. After spending several hours in the humidity and heat, the coolness of the river provides relief. There is no conditioned air at forestry camp. The FFA members continued a tradition that began in 1934. Many of these students will compete in the FFA Forestry CDE (career development event) this fall. The first day or two without mommy and air conditioning were tough on a few of the campers but this group really benefitted from the experience.
The campers found active southern pine beetle sites, climbed a fire tower, cruised longleaf pine, participated in competitive team events, and a host of other activities. They were able to meet other youth from around the state who have similar interests and were able to be immersed in forestry education and issues. Yesterday evening a banquet was held and awards were presented. This morning the students headed home.
Caveman
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(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22883/image~107.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1468607563) Kathleen FFA members at Forestry Camp
I am sure that they really enjoyed the experience.
I went in 1963.
Wonder if it influenced me in my decision to start a native plant nursery and of course my purchase of a TK B-20.
Bet it did have a lot of influence ???
A great experience for young people.
I took a group of seven of my high school students to forestry camp last week. There were a couple of years that the Florida Forest Service did not host the camp due to covid and the decision of the previous agriculture commissioner, Nikki Fried. The camp started in 1934. Many of the same buildings are in use. The students had to acclimate to the sweltering heat and the absence of AC but all of mine were troopers. They appreciated the opportunity to learn from foresters and rangers. The camp is held at O'Leno state park along the Santa Fe River, which disappears into a sink and comes back up several miles away at River Rise.
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The PHD forester, Jeff Eikwort, pictured above is from UF. He does a presentation at camp about bugs, disease, invasives and rot. It is one of the highlights of the camp for me. I was able to get a picture of some of my students with him. I am noticing a lot of the credits on the pictures and publications about forest disorders are from this guy. This picture was taken at 8 p.m. I don't think he's used to the heat.
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The students may send me some better pictures. I did not take many.
What a great opportunity!
Some of those FFA members pictured above will compete in the district forestry career development event (forestry contest) tomorrow at a new location for us, Tenoroc Management Area. It used to be Coronet Phosphate Mine years ago. The winning team tomorrow will advance to the state event next month in north Florida (Perry).
We had a pretty humbling but good four-hour practice Sunday afternoon and another four-hour practice today.
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I set out 48 of the 50 possible dendro samples, a USGS topo map with a test, tool i.d., a couple tables of disorders and a 50-question multiple guess test. I did not test them on timber cruising but instead we walked around in the woods for an hour or a little more measuring a few trees, agreeing where to stop measuring height and just trying to get them to see some new things.
The foam on top of the wood rack will hopefully find its way into another kiln.
This time tomorrow night we will be finished with FFA forestry or have another month of work.
A great learning experience.
Caveman: the ag. education system in FL is going to suffer too much if you retire and step away from this.
There must be a position with the FFA organization where you could continue your talent of teaching and forestry/agriculture. On a as-and-when required basis so that you can enjoy some pre-retirement freedom.
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You are the best example to put BS to that snarky line that: "those who can-do, those who can't-teach."
Andries, if my daughter, who works with me does not want to coach forestry, (I think she will probably move out of high school after I leave. She started teaching high school kids when she was 20 years old), my plan is to give all of the material that I have created and accumulated over the years to every ag teacher who will take it in an effort to perpetuate the participation in this event.
It is a difficult contest and a lot of the younger teachers do not want to put the time in to learn how to teach the intricacies of this contest. Heck, I've been doing this 23 years, and I would have missed at least two out of 20 on the forest disorders portion of the test today.
I will volunteer to set up a practice event for any who will attend after I hang it up. I am hopeful that the team that beat us last year at the state contest does well at nationals next month. They have a couple of foresters helping coach them.
As far as an alternative position, I have proposed an offer to keep working. It would include an office at a school close to home, a vehicle, and not much more. The job that I proposed would include me helping teachers with some of the things that most of the new ones are not adept at: tractor operation, irrigation, welding, fence construction, and training specific FFA teams as well as helping with the maintenance of their facilities. I don't think it will come to fruition, which is really fine with me. I just don't think that I want to keep doing what I'm doing when most of the folks I'm teaching don't give two squirts of warm ____ if they learn anything or not.
We finally got results this afternoon a few hours after school let out. The A team scored the highest in the district and our B team was second. We have a lot of work ahead of us if we are going to be competitive at the next level next month against the best from Florida. Several of my team members will be away for a week at the national FFA convention between now and the contest. Three of the four are new but they are smart and if they work hard, they should do relatively well.
Their scores are a reflection of your efforts. You have done well my friend.
Thank you. They were stoked with the win. Normally, they forestry service figures out the scores and presents awards after lunch at the contest, but our forester did not really have it all worked out. Between the two teams, they will receive 17 of the 18 individual ribbons.
I should probably go collect some more challenging dendro samples this evening.
The Florida FFA Forestry contest was today at the site in Perry that was hit so hard by a hurricane a few months ago. The room we normally use for practice at the hotel was filled with FEMA or some kind of folks looking into computer screens. We put a bunch of dendro samples on the beds and disorder samples eleswhere in the room.
We had a pretty good rain yesterday afternoon and it continued throughout the day today so the only forestry event outside was timber cruising. Our team finished first in timber cruising and map interpretation and well enough in all of the other practicums to bring home a first-place win. they will have the opportunity to compete in the national event in Indiana next fall. The team members placed 1,2,3,9 individually. I was surprised and felt very fortunate that they got by some really well coached teams.
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We spent most of the day yesterday driving, collecting dendro samples, looking for forest disorders and practicing timber cruising in the rain. I knew when I saw their timber estimation papers today that they were either consistently good or consistently bad as a team. Fortunately, they measured the trees similarly to the foresters who set up the event.
Joe Maine- thank you for the hat (ICT).
Congratulations!!
Congratulations. Y'all have put in a lot of work and earned this win.
Another awesome score for your young ladies and great accomplishment for their teacher and motivator.
I can relate to when I wore that same FAA jacket back in the day, but my fellow students and projects (pigs, beef cattle, chickens, sheep, etc. ) were not nearly the same.
All of them have market steers or hogs and most have heifers too. Two of them work at a retail plant nursery and another works on a ranch. I don't know how they have the time of energy to do all that they do.
We will be tagging county fair hogs tomorrow morning at 7:30 at school. I do not anticipate much teaching or learning of academics to occur tomorrow. Everyone is ready for a few days off.
Great job!