Council Information

Student and Advisor Participants	On April 30, 19 students from Penn Yan (Yates County), Belleville (Jefferson County), and Fillmore (Allegany County) high schools competed for scholarships and conservation knowledge bragging rights at the Second Annual NYS Grassland Evaluation Contest. The contest is designed to test the students’ knowledge of agriculture, grazing, and managing resources to meet livestock needs, balanced with protecting wildlife habitat. The teams, made of four students involved in Future Farmers of America or 4-H from across the entire state, evaluated plots of land for four different topics: grassland condition, soil evaluation, wildlife habitat considerations, and plant identification.
The USDA-NRCS Plant Material Center, in Big Flats, NY, was the test location. This was ideal because the center has both warm and cool season grass fields for the students to evaluate. The PMC staff was extremely helpful in preparing the site for the contest, providing plant samples for the students to identify, and providing a tours on a warm season grass field prior to the contest was completed.
2007 First Place Team- Penn Yan Academy	Troy Bishopp, Chairman of the NYS Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative Steering Committee awarded Penn Yan Academy the first place finish. Penn Yan’s team, coached by John Kriese, consisted of Sarah Voak, Elizabeth Martens, Peter Martens, and Ryan Christiansen. The members are now eligible to compete in the national contest to be held in Missouri this June. The second place award went to the school who won the contest last year, Belleville-Henderson team #1, who finished one point ahead of the team from Fillmore Central. The High Scoring Individual award was presented to Dave Furman from Belleville-Henderson team #2. The 3rd Annual NYS Grassland Evaluation Contest will be held on September 30, 2008 at the Plant Material Center.
Sponsors of the New York competition include Seneca Trail Resource Conservation and Development Council (RC&D), New York State Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative, Empire State Chapter-Soil and Water Conservation Society, R&R Fencing, Finger Lakes RC&D and USDA-Natural Resource Conservation Service.

To download a copy of the 2008 contest rules and registration form clink here

2008 Grassland Condition training materials (.pdf)

2008 Wildlife Habitat training material (.pdf)

2008 Soil training material (.pdf)

2008 Plant Identification training material (.pdf)

Here is a good web site for information and pictures of weeds:

http://www.ppws.vt.edu/weedindex.htm

Here is a good website for information and identification drawings about grasses:

http://www.caf.wvu.edu/~forage/library/cangrass/content.htm

Forage grasses and legumes information and pictures:
http://www.agry.purdue.edu/ext/forages/forageid.htm

Trees and shrubs information and pictures:
http://www.forestryimages.org/treesplants.cfm