Auburn will be hosting the 56th annual Southern Forestry Conclave for the first time since 2001 on March 14-16.
There are 14 schools across the Southeast participating in the Conclave: Virginia Tech, North Carolina State, Clemson, Georgia, Florida, Auburn, Alabama A&M, Mississippi State, Louisiana Tech, LSU, Stephen F. Austin, Kentucky, Tennessee and Arkansas Monticello.
"They bring a team anywhere from a small team of eight to a big team of 30," said Tom Gallagher, adviser for the Forestry Club. "They will compete in 18 physical events and eight technical events as a team and we tally up the team's score and somebody takes home the trophy."
The technical events are pole classification, DBH estimation, wood ID, photogrammetry, timber estimation, wildlife ID, dendrology, compass and pacing.
"The technical events are stuff we learn in class like tree identification and estimating how much timber is on a tract of land," said James Robert Dearman, president of the Forestry Club.
The physical events will be more of old school forestry stuff the participants do for fun. Those events are things such as knife throw, axe throw, log birling, archery, men and women bow saw and pole climb.
"At the end of the two days we have an awards event and we give an overall winner for the physical side an overall winner for the physical side and then we give just an overall winner," Dearman said.
Every year the Conclave rotates between each of the 14 schools on who gets to host the events.
"We have the sole responsibility for putting it on," Dearman said. "Each year the Forestry Club of the hosting school puts on conclave, so this year the responsibility is on us. We have been doing everything from raising money for sponsorships, and we have reserved Heritage Park and Cowboy Arena on Highway 280. Our students will also be the go-to people if the contestants have any questions."
Two schools, Stephen F. Austin in Texas and Arkansas Monticello, have dominated the competition for the past 56 years it has been going on, Gallagher said. Last year, however, Georgia took home the trophy.
"They've kind of taken turns winning it for the last 25 years, and Georgia surprised everybody last year and won it," Gallagher said. "Part of it is some schools are just adamant about wining it. For example Stephen F. Austin's mascot is a lumberjack, so that whole school lives this stuff. At Auburn we love it and just want to have a good time."
More importantly than winning the competition the conclave gives students a slight advantage when they head out into the job market.
"You get to communicate with forestry students from different schools," Dearman said. "Forestry is a pretty small industry and networking is a huge part in the industry. We've got several forestry companies coming and trying to talk to students and gauge interest in future job opportunities."
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