By MIKE MCKENNA
To most passersby, the sagebrush-covered high desert that surrounds the Wood River Valley looks like a lifeless wasteland.
“A lot of people call these places, these vast rangelands that cover more than half of Idaho, the ‘Big Nothing’,” said Lovina Englund of the University of Idaho Rangeland Center. “But when you really look, there’s a lot there.”
Last week, more than 70 high school students from four states spent time looking at just such land, at Rock Creek Ranch, just west of Bellevue. They were there to compete in the annual Western Regional contest for the FFA (formerly known as the Future Farmers of America). The contest was part of a two-day event put on by the UI Rangeland Center and the Idaho Rangeland Resource Commission.
A total of 17 teams of the best and brightest agriculture students from Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming were tasked with solving a variety of challenges, included tackling a habitat improvement problem, ranking habitat for cattle, wildlife and forage diversity, and identifying plants and soils.
While lands like those found at Rock Creek Ranch look like little more than a sea of rolling and barren hills and valleys, the trained eye sees an abundance of life. There are dozens of grasses, wildflowers and shrubs as well as all kinds of wildlife at such places.
“It’s vibrant,” said Ryan Kindall, an agriculture student at UI who competed several times in National FFA Career Development events when he was in high school. “There are lots of different life forms and different species and they all play a role in this ecosystem.” Ryan now serves as a student ambassador for the UI College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. He described Rock Creek Ranch as being “pretty healthy and a fantastic and clear representation of Western rangeland.”
It was the first time Rock Creek Ranch has hosted the event, which rotates throughout the four states in the region. The FFA contest is exactly the type of educational event the Wood River Land Trust, The Nature Conservancy and the UI were hoping to host, when the three entities teamed up to preserve the 10,400-acre ranch earlier this year.
“Rock Creek Ranch really meets the mission and vision for what we’re trying to accomplish,” said Lovina, who spearheaded bringing the annual contest here. “We’re trying to help students understand that there is more than one view to the landscape. We want the kids to hear the message and see the interaction between grazing, wildlife habitat and recreation on the ground.”
Another big goal of the event is to help students see that there are lots of career and educational opportunities available throughout the field. To that end, the night before the contest included a meet and greet with a wide variety of agricultural-based professionals from places like the Natural Resource Conservation Service, Bureau of Land Management, Idaho Department of Agriculture and the Idaho Department of Lands.
“There are more jobs available than can be filled,” Lovina said about the agricultural and rangeland industry.
“This is the next generation that will be working in the field,” said Gretchen Hyde, executive director for the IRRC. “This event combines cattle, wildlife and understanding the plants, the ecology and how it all works together. It’s very important. This is most of what Idaho’s backyard looks like.