The East Knox FFA recently represented the state of Ohio and competed in the Eastern Regional National FFA Forestry Career Development Event at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Mass., on Sept. 15-17.
Senior Hailey Frazee, junior Colvin Guthrie, and sophomores Hayden Baker and Dylan Springer placed third out of a field of FFA teams representing the 18 states in the eastern region of the United States. Hayden Baker was the seventh-place individual in the event. The top five teams and the top nine individuals in the eastern region received awards for their ranking at the banquet held on Saturday night at the Sheraton Hotel in Springfield.
The team qualified for the Eastern Regional CDE by placing second in the State Forestry Career Development Event hosted by Hocking College in Nelsonville last September. Individually, in the state contest, Springer placed fifth, Frazee finished ninth, Guthrie was 33rd and Baker placed 48th out of 183 contestants.
In the contest, team members had to identify tree species, identify forestry tools, conduct a timber cruise to determine the volume of lumber in a forest stand, determine chainsaw parts and troubleshooting, and identify diseases and disorders of a forest. The final individual phase of the competition was taking a written test on forests and the forestry industry.
The members also had to complete a team activity where they were given a management problem and situations where they had to determine tree heights, calculate distance and azimuth of property lines, determine features from a topographical map, and compute forest management calculations.
The Forestry Career Development Event is an educational activity designed to assess a student’s knowledge of this field of study and to provide recognition for those who have demonstrated skills and competencies in the area of forestry management.
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