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Coosa County 4-H’ers Dominate National
Forestry Competition – Again
(The 2003 National
4-H Forestry Judging Team, left to right: Assistant Coach Blake
Kelley, Amanda Luker; Brittany Brown, Emily Vines, Holly Cordner and
Coach Roger Vines. )
Auburn,
August 5, 2003
--- To
the victors belong the spoils, and the spoils of 4-H forestry judging
once again go to Alabama thanks to the hard work of four Coosa County
4-H team members. The
Coosa
team captured the national championship at the 24th Annual
National 4-H Forestry Invitational, held July 27 through 31 in Weston,
W.V.
The
team was comprised of Amanda Luker and Emily Vines, both of Rockford,
Holly Cordner of Sylacauga and Brittany Brown of
Alexander
City.
They competed against 15 other states during the grueling four-day
event. The competition was sponsored by International Paper Company
Foundation and the Cooperative Extension Service.
“Our
team lived up to Alabama’s strong reputation in national competition,”
observed Coosa County Extension Agent Roger Vines of Rockford, who, in
addition to this year’s championship team, has coached numerous
first-place teams in forestry and wildlife judging during his nearly
20-year Extension career.
Blake Kelly, also
of
Rockford, served as assistant coach.
The
team, which earned a total 1680.5 points out of a possible 1900
points, enjoyed a 53-point margin over second-place winner
Pennsylvania and nearly 100 points over third-place
West Virginia.
No
other state in the nation has been able to match Alabama, which has
amassed 12 national championships in the 20-year history of forestry
judging competition.
Alabama teams have
won the national forestry championship in eight out of the last nine
years, Vines said. 2003 also marks the sixth consecutive year Coosa
County teams have competed for either a forestry or wildlife judging
national title. All of these teams placed among the top three
states. Three of these teams secured national championships, one a
reserve national championship.
National championships, in fact, are nothing new to three members of
the 2003 team –Cordner, Luker and Vines – who served on the national
wildlife judging team in 2001.
The
Alabama team also dominated individual scoring at this year’s event.
Cordner secured first place with a score of 451 out of a possible 500
points. Luker, with a score of 428 points, placed second, and Brown,
who garnered 423 points, captured third place. Vines placed ninth
with a score of 407 points.
At the
Invitational, students compete for overall team and individual awards
in tree identification, tree measurement, forest health (forest
entomology and forest pathology) compass traverse, topographic map
use, forest evaluation and the Forestry Bowl, a fast-paced event
fashioned after popular television quiz shows.
The International
Paper Company Foundation, which co-sponsored the event, was founded in
1953 as a philanthropic grant-making organization. It primarily
addresses existing and emerging educational needs as well as civic
needs within the communities where International Paper operates
businesses. The Foundation also supports organizations where employees
actively volunteer.
(Source: Roger
Vines,
Coosa
County
Extension Agent, 256-377-1553.)
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