UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — A field day event held recently by Penn State Extension gave youth 4-H members from across Pennsylvania an opportunity to explore their interest in wildlife and forestry. The “Exploratory Tract” for youth 7-11 included hands-on wildlife and forestry educational activities and guest speakers. The theme was “Big, Bigger and Biggest!” and featured workshops on invasive plant species, amphibians and reptiles and wildlife population dynamics.
The “Science Tract” offered youth 12-18 a chance to participate in a series of educational sessions to increase their knowledge and skills related to wildlife and forest sciences. According to organizers, the sessions brought to life content from 4-H wildlife and forestry project books and helped 4-H’ers better understand current conservation issues. The event also was aimed at inspiring participants to investigate potential career paths in forest and wildlife conservation.
Teens hoping to attend national 4-H competitions in wildlife and forestry competed in knowledge and skills tests.
The wildlife science competition results were as follows:
• first place to Carson Riley, of Huntingdon County.
• second place to Grace Ziegmont, of York County.
• third place to Madison Cousins, of Armstrong County.
• a fourth-place tie between Carley Locke, of Crawford County; Gideon Sensenig, of Lancaster County; Jasper Martin, of Montour County; and Olivia Creek, of Cumberland County.
• fifth place to Isaiah Snyder, of Blair County.
A team of these top scorers will represent Pennsylvania at the 2023 National Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Program Invitational, July 30-Aug. 2 in Milford, Iowa. The ecoregion of focus for this year will be the Great Plains grasslands and tallgrass/mixed prairie.
• • •
BURTON, Ohio — Geauga Prime Time is a very dedicated and hard-working 4-H club that does everything it can to “make the best better.” It is a multi-animal club where members can raise anything from chickens to lambs to cows.
This young and enthusiastic club is very involved in the community, participating in projects such as making care packages for soldiers, helping at a spaghetti dinner to support a family who lost a mother and child in a fire and making blankets for veterans. In addition, the club will be hosting a “dine and donate” at Manga Manga on a future date; if you tell your waiter “Geauga Prime Time,” 20% of the proceeds will go to the club. Another fundraiser will be the annual corn and bake sale at Burton Square Aug. 6.
• • •
HANOVERTON, Ohio — The Hicks & Hayseeds 4-H Club met June 6 at Baker’s Golden Dairy. Club member Ashley Hershberger is an intern at the dairy and gave the club a tour. The members saw the cows being milked by the robot. The calf barn was full of calves that everyone got to pet and see fed, and the group saw where milk and ice cream were made.
In other business, the club will be cooking a Fourth of July meal for the Kendall Home. The menu will be sausage sandwiches with peppers and onions, potato and cucumber salads and a cherry dessert.
On July 1, all animals going to the fair will need to be registered again via the fair entry system. The link will be on the junior fair website. Dairy posters are due July 13 at 7 p.m. at the fair.
Demonstrations were given by Bryce Wood on repairing a deer antler, Ava Wood on planting seeds in a flower pot, and Hayden Casto on trapping coyotes.
