High school range judging coming to Chadron
About 200 high school students from Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, North Dakota and Montana are expected to take part in the Society for Range Management’s Old West Regional Range Judging hosted by Chadron State College on Sunday and Monday, Oct. 14-15.
Dr. Chuck Butterfield, CSC range management professor and past Nebraska Section SRM president, said the students will have a practice session in the field Sunday afternoon before Monday morning’s competition at another site near Chadron.
The competition includes various tests about rangeland management, including a 25-plant identification, range sites, estimations of range usage and a complex problem.
The top performers will qualify for this year's national competition which will be in Oklahoma.
Following the competition, Butterfield and CSC graduate student Jeremiah Vardiman of Woodland Park, Colo., plan to tell the students about their research of the region’s wildfires and bighorn sheep management, if time allows.
Butterfield said the event’s location rotates through the five-state region, and this will be the first time Chadron has hosted the event in at least 20 years.
Category: Campus News