Forestry contest marches on

COCOLALLA - The Sagle sixth-graders under Ray Bird's tutelage have big boots to fill: Their own.

The students are representing the same school that last year won the Idaho State Forestry Contest.

"We took the whole ball of wax," Bird said. "We owned the podium."

More than 250 fifth and sixth grade competitors from throughout the region returned to this year's competition, sponsored by the Idaho Department of Lands, U.S. Forest Service and the Bonner Soil and Water Conservation District.

Bird knew what his students must do.

"We're trying to continue our dynasty," Bird said.

At the end of the afternoon, Sagle Elementary Team 5 won the rookie division and Careywood's Eager beavers 4-H Team 1, beat all competitors in the junior division.

The contest, in its 28th year, began after local foresters, including Bill Love of the department of lands in Sandpoint, volunteered their help at a similar student forestry contest in Colville.

"We thought, why drive all the way to Washington?" Love said. "Why don't we do something like that here?"

Local landowners and soil and conservation district workers Fairy and Ray DeLay donated the use of their property and schools from throughout the area, many of them with forestry programs, attended.

The number of students and volunteers at the annual contest jumped to close to 1,000 before falling off slightly this year.

Attendance at Thursday's event on the Delay property south of Cocolalla was tallied at 700, coordinator Karen Robinson said.

The contest is separated into three groups including a novice category comprised of elementary students, a rookie group of fifth and sixth graders, and the junior-senior division is for high school students.

Schools from as far away as Buhl attend the annual event.

"That is the farthest we've ever had," Robinson said.

In addition to vying for state accolades, Sandpoint High School forestry students in John Hastings' class earned part of their class grade, identifying plants and trees, scaling logs, cruising timber and competing in a compass course.

"This counts as their final exam," Hastings said.

One of his four-student teams earned a third place in the state competition last year.

"We usually get a team in the top 10," he said.

Ashley Stoneham, a Idaho Department of Lands firefighter and volunteer at this year's contest, earned a second place in the contest when he was in high school. The 2003 SHS graduate competed in the contest for three years as a student.

The training was one of the reasons he chose a career in forestry, he said.

That is what Robinson likes to hear.

Her tallies show that the number of youngsters competing in the rookie class has jumped almost three-fold in the last few years.

It spiked to 250 from 100 last year, she said.

"Last year we thought 100 was all we could handle," she said. "This rookie course is an investment in the future. We're trying to keep the interest going."

By day's end Post Falls students earned top honors, with Troy earning a third place in the senior division.