Clifton Forge, VA – Mountain Gateway Community College hosted a State Forestry Event for qualifying students on Wednesday, April 24. During the event, students from 11 qualifying middle schools, three 4H groups and students from six high schools from across the state competed for the 2024 Junior State Forestry, the 2024 State 4H Forestry, and 2024 State Senior Forestry titles, respectively.
Participating high schools included Carroll County, Broadway, Central, Buckingham, Magna Vista, and Atlee.
Participating middle schools included Carroll County, Amherst, Powhatan Middle, J. Frank Hillyard Middle, Buckingham, Chickahominy Middle, Magna Vista, Chatham Middle, Atlee, Carroll County Middle, and Signal Knob Middle.
Carroll County 4H, Rockingham 4H and Buckingham 4H students competed as well.
Students participated in various activities around the MGCC Forestry portion of campus during the contests, including a Forest General Knowledge Exam, Tree Identification, Map Interpretation, and more. Each student was scored based upon their performance, and individual scores were tallied for group totals.
Carroll County came first in all categories – individual and group in Junior, 4H and Senior. They will go on to compete in the national championship later this year. Detailed event results for this event can be found on judgingcard.com.
First-year MGCC Urban Forestry students assisted Forestry Management Associate Professor Billy Newman in preparing and executing the event. Members of the FFA and Mountain Gateway administration were present.
For more information about the events, visit https://www.vaffa.org/forestry.