Lodgepole's Hendrickson attends Range Camp

Hunter Hendrickson of Lodgepole represented the South Platte Natural Resources District at the 52nd Annual Nebraska Youth Range Camp from June 8-12 at the Nebraska State 4-H Camp, located in the Nebraska National Forest near Halsey.

The camp is a blend of educational and recreational activities, with the primary emphasis being on range, livestock, natural resource and ranch management in the Nebraska Sandhills. Each camper received a notebook of reference materials as well as classroom and field experience. The camp was open to all interested young men and women between the age of 14 and 18 with an interest in Nebraska's most extensive natural resource, rangelands.

The Range Camp program has evolved over the years into a combination of classroom, field and recreational experiences that educate and entertain both the youth that have very little experience with range sciences and those who have participated in range education programs for years.

The idea of Range Camp is to present a "short course" of range education while maintaining a high level of recreational activities to keep the young people alert and interested in the program.

Classroom presentations and field exercises are provided by a cadre of University of Nebraska Educators and Extension Specialists, Chadron State College Instructors, Natural Resource Conservation Service employees, as well as volunteers from other agencies. The recreational activities include canoeing the Middle Loup River, swimming, team building activities, various relays and contests.

Awards are provided to the top five first-year campers and the top returning camper. The campers who spend the week at Range Camp are eligible to compete for two or three paid sponsorships, made available by the Nebraska Section Society for Range Management, to attend the International Society for Range Management meeting in February and participate as Nebraska's delegates to the SRM High School Youth Forum activities held in conjunction with that meeting.

For additional information about Range Camp, visit http://www.nesrm.org.