Recently, the East Knox FFA Urban Soils Career Development Event team placed 10th in the state event held on Oct.12 in Union County at the Dave Gruenbaum Farm on Durban Road north of Plain City.
Urban team members were Madisyn Frost, Aiden Kapper, Ariana Talbott, and Alexia Wine. Ariana Talbott finished as the 2nd-place individual in the state, with Kapper placing 79th, Wine finishing 80th, and Frost placing 110th out of 166 competitors from across Ohio.
East Knox earned a berth in the state urban contest after placing third out of 17 teams in the District 7 contest conducted earlier in Ross County near Londonderry. The top five teams from each of the state’s 10 FFA districts qualify for the state, making a field of 50 teams. Individually in the district event, Ariana Talbott placed second, Madisyn Frost finished seventh, Aiden Kapper placed 11th, Alexia Wine was 15th and Nealie Oliver finished 29th out of 74 competitors.
Prior to the district contest, East Knox FFA placed second in the county event sponsored by the Knox County Soil and Water Conservation District and held at the Fowler Farm near Amity.
In the urban soil evaluation event, members determine soil slope, landform, flooding hazard, stability, texture at three different levels, structure in the subsoil, drainage class, depth to restrictive features, and depth to bedrock. This information is used to make recommendations to use the site for houses with basements; sewage treatment systems; driveways and roads; and lawns, gardens, and landscaping. Teams also take a written test over soils and find soil information from the web soil survey.
The top five teams in the State Urban Soils Career Development Event represent Ohio each May at the National Land and Range Contest in Oklahoma. Although East Knox did not qualify for the national contest this year, their 10th-place finish has the chapter placing in the top 10 in the state 38 out of the past 42 years. East Knox FFA also has been in the national contest 29 times in the past 36 years (the most of any FFA in Ohio).
