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Florida FFA Forestry Contest

Started by caveman, November 14, 2014, 07:12:50 PM

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caveman

I figured I would post the results of the Florida FFA Forestry CDE since I ask for help so frequently.  My team, KATHLEEN SR., placed second today.  Baker County FFA won. If we were to be beat, I couldn't choose a better person to have my team finish second behind than the advisor who coaches their team.  It was super close.  Our kids had the highest general knowledge test scores, we had the high individual in the event and placed in the top three in almost every event.  The kids worked hard and learned a ton in the past few months.  Thank you for all of the valuable information provided.  Baker County FFA will represent Florida at the national forestry contest next October in Louisville.
Baker County FFA 1st
Kathleen FFA 2nd
Durant FFA 3rd

Kyle
Caveman

thecfarm

Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

WDH

You should be very proud of your team.
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

caveman

I was proud of the team's efforts and dedication throughout the months that they have been preparing for this event.  Today, at 5:37 p.m., I got a text/e-mail that the results read on Friday at the forestry contest were incorrect and that Kathleen FFA was the winning team.  This seemed apparent Saturday morning when the scores were sent out.  It took until this afternoon to become official and be changed by the Florida Forest Service.

My students were jubilant when they received the news.  I am sure the Baker County team was incredibly disappointed and understandably so. 

I will try to get some pictures of the students at the event in the next few days.  Also, next fall we will certainly have more questions that need answers as this group prepares for the national event and I will be on the Forestry Forum seeking information from its knowledgeable members.
Thank you,
Kyle
Caveman

WDH

Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

beenthere

south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

thecfarm

Well how about that for some great news!!!!
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

caveman

Since I have posted on this thread, I've changed schools and a lot of water has gone under the bridge but today my students competed in the state forestry contest.  Usually this event is held in the fall but due to Covid, we did not even know if there would be a contest this year until a few weeks ago.  My students studied and won the FFA nursery contest last month and then had a few short weeks to transition to forestry.  The Florida Forestry Service normally hosts the event in Perry but not this year.  FFA and a few ag teachers set up the event in Gainesville today.

The students met at my house a little before 6 for the two hour drive north to Gainesville.  They had a good time, did not get rained on and we ate BBQ for lunch on the way home (first time I've eaten in a restaurant in over a year).  Our team did not win but we had the high individual in the state and placed third overall.  This was better than I expected.  It was good to take students out and do some normal activities after over a year of abnormal.  I would like to take another team to the national event before I retire.
Caveman

Andries

Well done Kyle!
One of these years I'd like to sit in on some of the classes, I'd probably learn a lot!
Congratulations.
LT40G25
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caveman

Andries, I've learned a ton on the FF, met a lot of good folks here and put faces to names at Jake's.  
Caveman

WDH

Next time you get up here, I want to take you on a walk through the Big Grocery Creek hardwood bottomlands.  It is a special place for trees.  I know that you love trees. 
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

caveman

I am looking forward to the walk and catching up with you.  I enjoy walking in the woods about as much as anything.
Caveman

petefrom bearswamp

Kyle,
Congrats to your team.
Let me know if and when you need conifer samples
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57 acres of woodland

caveman

Pete, I appreciate the offer but the only team to advance to nationals is the winning team.  I hope that before I retire and before my daughter, who is in the 10th grade graduates, we will win the state contest and go back to the national event.  Three of the four students on this team won the nursery and landscape contest last month and will go to nationals in October for that.  They can only do one national FFA contest a year.  Hopefully next year they can get it done for forestry.  In Florida, forestry is a tough one to place in the top three or four.  I hope that you are doing well.
Caveman

caveman

Last month our FFA forestry team (George Jenkins HS) won the district contest and advanced to the state contest.  They competed today and ended up winning.  It was a well presented contest with some challenging trees to measure, difficult map questions, a wide variety of dendro samples form all over the state and a disease/disorder portion that was definitely not a cakewalk.

Our team was announced as the WINNERS today.  I will likely be calling on my forester friends next fall to help me obtain some of the samples that we do not have so that the team can adequately prepare for the National contest, which will be next October.  

Yesterday we had a great day of driving and practice.  The drive was spent with the girls going over general knowledge and map info.  We arrived at O'leno State Park around 930 and spent the next several hours hiking and collecting dendro and disorder specimens.  After a lunch break in Perry, we checked into the hotel and headed back out into the woods near the hotel, then to a church to measure the exceptional longleaf pines in the churchyard.  After a supper at a Mexican restaurant, it was back to the hotel to review anything that the girls wanted to go over.

Last night I evidently left the lights on on the vehicle I borrowed from the county to haul the kids.  The battery was as dead as a beaver hat but thankfully the engine started with a jump.

A few pics.



 

 
The girl beside me is my youngest daughter.  This was her first state FFA contest win.  She finished as the 3rd highest individual in the contest today and won the timber cruising portion.

 

The bottom picture was posted under the SSSSSnakes topic after our Sunday afternoon practice but it is more appropriate for this post.  
Caveman

customsawyer

Awesome job as usual. It has to be a great moment to spend that time with your daughter. Congratulations.
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kantuckid

Great job!
Our rural county in E KY has had teams in past years. I've found that many loggers and even a few sawmill owners are not what I'll call "book savvy" or know detailed info on tree species. 
More importantly it showcases the huge forest products industry which is not as much in the public eye as it should be in my state where horses and bourbon get the glitzy media talk.  
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

samandothers

Congratulations to you and the young ladies!  They have to pull it off but you have to impart the knowledge and put in the time.

caveman

Jake, one of the things I'm thankful for is that all of my daughters were active in the FFA chapters that I have served as the advisor/Ag teacher.  I would have hated to have my parents as teachers but they have adapted well.  I missed a lot of time with them when they were younger due to coaching or, later being an FFA advisor and often working double the hours I was getting paid for.  

Kentuckid,  I've taken a few teams to Bernhiem (sp) Forest in Kentucky a few times to compete when the FFA convention was held in Louisville.  The terrain, trees and timber practices are quite a bit different in the hardwood forests in Indiana and Kentucky from what we have in Florida.

@WDH, I appreciate all of your help and patience answering my questions over the years.  I look forward to walking with you in your woods again.

@Jeff, I would be remiss if I did not extend a sincere thank you for putting the Forestry Forum together and maintaining it for all of these years.  It is a great resource and has enabled me to meet many good friends.
Caveman

WDH

Kyle, I have said it before and I will say it again.  What you do for these kids by creating a teamwork environment and coaching them in forestry and Ag and providing them leadership and a role model is the stuff of heros.  You are truly a Hero in my book.

Mr. Argene Claxton at Perry High School served the same role for my oldest daughter when she was in High School.  She got very passionate (in large part due to his leadership) about forestry and wanted to learn all she could.  She won the State FFA Tree ID contest four years in a row (her Dad helped her just a tiny bit too) and she went to FFA Nationals in Louisville Kentucky and won the National Forestry Proficiency Award there.  I went with her, and at the awards ceremony in that venue with thousands of people there, I was so proud of her it brought tears to my eyes.

She went on to the University of Georgia, majored in Forestry, graduated Summa Cum Laude with a 4.0 grade point average, went on the Graduate School where she got a Fellowship to study Forest Operations (Logging and Timber Production), and now is part owner of a Foresty Consulting Company called FORISK that does forestry research for investors in timberland, research for companies that need growth/drain information to locate new facilities, and teaches classes in Forest Economics.

Her experience in High school in FFA  with the leadeship by Mr. Argene Claxton, had a profound influence on her.  You are doing exactly the same thing.  I see in you what I saw in him and you have my highest respect for what you are doing.  I really look forward to walking the wood with you again.  The next time you can come by, I will take you to Oaky Woods to see the Champion trees that I have found there and see a large hardwood bottomland that has been undisturbed for many decades.  
Woodmizer LT40HDD35, John Deere 2155, Kubota M5-111, Kubota L2501, Nyle L53 Dehumidification Kiln, and a passion for all things with leafs, twigs, and bark.  hamsleyhardwood.com

kantuckid

In my rural area of endemic poverty, activities such as FFA & 4-H are the first "go somewhere" trip & activity many of our local kids have done. They are sometimes not athletes who travel around more so it spreads that sort of opportunity among all kids. Lots of these kids from my county have never stayed in a hotel before.
After retirement, when I was teaching gifted & talented kids in the nearby county where I'd worked as a HS principal, I took them on field trips to see how people work in ways they wouldn't have experienced before. A Marriot Resort nearby the Keeneland horse race track was one of those places. They got to talk to head chefs, event planners and much more and when looking over a high end hotel room with the head of house keeping I came to appreciate how few of them had been in any level of hotel room much less knew about the jobs done there.
To then throw in the knowledge that they are able to compete with and get to know other kids and see they are much the same as everywhere else is worthwhile.
Lots of words to say that simply getting kids out there matters a lot.
The State Forester who did my early tree farm visits was married to a fellow forester-they were from NY state. She was the only female I've seen in forestry work other than an office secretary.  
Caveman: Bernheim Forest is far in miles and far from the overall culture that prevails in eastern KY.  Sort of like in Florida where you have the real Florida and the touristy version that permeates almost everything.
Kan=Kansas;tuck=Kentucky;kid=what I'm not

Jeff

Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

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