Colorado high school students Jedadiah Ballard, Chrisily Furia, and Elaine Shannon were selected by the Colorado Section of the Society for Range Management to participate in the High School Youth Forum, an SRM sponsored youth activity held jointly during the 76^th SRM annual meeting held in Boise, Idaho, on Feb. 12-16, 2023.

Ballard is currently a sophomore at Fowler high school; Furia is a junior at Hoehne high school; and Shannon is a junior attending Kim high school. All three students were selected to represent the Colorado Section SRM based on their outstanding achievements last year in the Colorado FFA range judging and plant identification events. Shannon is a two-year graduate in the range management curriculum at Camp Rocky. Fowler agriculture teacher/FFA advisor Brenten Ormiston along with John Shannon, Elaine’s dad, and Chris Furia, Chrisily’s dad, attended the forum with the students to broaden their knowledge of range management and the functions of the SRM.

All three of these Ag/FFA students said they enjoyed the forum and benefitted by interacting with 22 fellow students from all over the western United States and Canada who shared a common interest in the stewardship of rangelands. In addition to gaining valuable experience in writing and presenting a formal presentation these high school students gained exposure to the mechanisms of the SRM and the professionals and ranchers who make up its membership.

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At the SRM Awards Ceremony the top five presentations are recognized based on the evaluations of five judges. Furia was honored with third-place for her presentation on cattle-wildlife interactions on the rangelands in southeastern Colorado. Shannon’s presentation highlighted the rangeland monitoring techniques and conservation benefits on her families ranch near Kim. Ballard presented his paper on the benefits and disadvantages of prairie dogs on our rangelands. All three students made visits, or did interviews, with local ranchers to gain information about their topics and learn about the range management practices being applied.

Visit the Colorado Section SRM’s website at http://www.cssrm.org to read all three papers presented by these outstanding high school youth.