UW Range Club Earns Regional Competition Honors

The University of Wyoming’s Range Club brought home honors last month during the Wyoming Section of the Society for Range Management (SRM) meeting and regional competition in Evanston.

College of Agriculture and Natural Resources students competed against those from Utah State University, Southern Utah University and Colorado State University. UW will compete in February at the International SRM meeting in Sacramento, Calif.

Range ecology and watershed management (REWM) student BJ Bender, Lake Forest, Calif., won extemporaneous speaking. Fellow range student Amanda Lee, Flower Mount, Texas, and agroecology student Andee Leininger, La Junta, Colo., earned third and fourth, respectively. Extension range specialist and club co-adviser Rachel Mealor coaches the students.

Bender, Kelsey Welter, Aurora, Colo., and Jessica Windh, Reedley, Calif., won the Range Cup poster competition. Ecosystem science and management (ESM) professor Pete Stahl mentored the team.

Undergraduate Range Management Exam (URME) winners include REWM students Eric Ramerth, Big Lake, Minn., second; Welter, third; and Shelby Baumgartner, Clearmont, fourth. Rangeland extension specialist Derek Scasta and plant sciences department graduate student Julia Workman coach URME contestants.

Agricultural business and range ecology major Tevyn Baldwin, Mitchell, Neb., earned third place in plant identification. Dan Rodgers, ESM associate professor, coaches the students.

Baldwin and UW alumna Marji Patz of the Natural Resources Conservation Service in Powell became the No. 1 Pro-Am team. A professional is randomly paired with a competing student, each taking the plant ID exam and the URME.