2003 Alabama 4-H Wildlife Judging Champions

(Members of Alabama's 2003 4-H Wildlife Judging championship team celebrate their June 25 victory in Auburn by spraying team coach Wayne Ford with confetti.)

Auburn, June 26, 2003 -- They’ve done it again. Three members of Tuscaloosa County’s 2002 4-H National Forestry Judging championship team have also won the Alabama 4-H Wildlife Judging competition, held in Auburn, June 25.

With the state championship secure, the team will now compete for the 2003 national title in Las Cruces, New Mexico, July 21 through 26.

The three members of the 2003 forestry championship team – Lisa Shaw, a junior at Tuscaloosa County High; Kate Greene, a senior at Northside High School; and Amy Farnsworth, who will begin her freshman year at Auburn this fall – were joined by new teammate Traci Beams, also a Northside High School senior, to compete for the state championship. The fourth member of the forestry team, Brandon Ligon, a Northside High School championship athlete, was too busy with baseball this summer to participate on the wildlife judging team.

Tuscaloosa County Extension Coordinator Wayne Ford, who has coached both the forestry and wildlife teams, said the recent win is a testament to the dedication and teamwork these girls have shown over the years.

“These kids are a close-knit group of youngsters who had a goal and worked hard for it,” said Ford, who also said the national wildlife judging competition will constitute the biggest challenge ever for the team, since they will have to have to familiarize themselves with the wildlife and flora of the American Southwest in order to compete effectively in the Las Cruces event.

Forestry and wildlife judging competition are among the most grueling of 4-H competitive events, one in which 4-H’ers often study for years in order to win top place. For example, one member of the state champion team, Greene, first began 4-H competition at age 5.

Even so, the payoff often comes in the form of better study skills and, ultimately, better grades.

“It obviously teaches study skills – everything from learning lists to being able to think critically,” said Dr. Jim Armstrong, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System wildlife scientist and a coordinator of wildlife judging competition. “And it not only involves rote memorization. You also have to learn about best management practices associated with managing wildlife habitats in both rural and urban settings.”

Contestants must be familiar with feeding habits and habitats of a wide variety of animals in their region. When they compete in other areas of the state – or when they compete for the national title out of state -- they also are expected to be familiar with animal feeding patterns and habitats in these places.

As an added challenge, they have to identify a series of aerial photographs of potential wildlife habitats, ranking them from best to worst according to how well they are suited for a particular species.

In another facet of competition involving wildlife management practices, contestants must learn what they should do on a farm to improve its suitability as a wildlife habitat for various species.

Students are also required to write an urban wildlife management plan, which involves writing a concise one-page description for improving the wildlife habitat potential for a backyard landscape.

“We’ve had hours of study – a lot of it memorization and knowing what you’re doing,” said Lisa Shaw, who added that the competition has really helped her develop study skills.

Wildlife competition also instills young people with a keen appreciation for the value of teamwork. And as team members learn very quickly in 4-H forestry and wildlife judging, they don’t get very far without it.

“It’s helped me learn how to work with a team,” observed Greene. “In some parts of the competition, you have to listen to everybody. I’m very much of an individual, so I had to learn how to incorporate everybody else’s ideas into my own.”

Greene also credits the competition with helping her learn a lot about all facets of nature and the outdoors – a sentiment shared by other team members.

“It’s been fun because my mom is a big plant person, and I say to her, ‘Look, why don’t you try this?” recalled Farnsworth with what seemed to be an unmistakable air of confidence.

Within the last 20 years, Tuscaloosa 4-H teams have amassed more forestry and wildlife judging national championships than any other team in the nation. Tuscaloosa secured its seventh national forestry judging championship last year. A victory in Las Cruces would mark Tuscaloosa’s fourth national wildlife judging championship.

(Source: Wayne Ford, Tuscaloosa County Extension Coordinator, 205-349-4630.)

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