by Beth Bergeron
Our 4H Outdoor Adventure project group is open to students in grades 4 through 12—all 4H members.
Our goal is to provide fun experiences in the outdoors while inspiring awe, and learning to love and care for this beautiful world with which we have been blessed. This group kicked off their fun adventures at Big Ridge State Park last November. They rotated between archery, hiking with Ranger Josh and environmental games.
The group has also met with our TWRA officer, Rick Roberts, at Horace Maynard Middle School to explore the world of pelts and skulls, been back to Big Ridge State Park for a birding program, as well as learning more about wildlife identification through more pelts and skulls with both Ranger Josh and Ranger Hannah.
Students have even enjoyed one of their monthly adventures at the Union County High School where they allowed their sense of adventure to kick in and hiked the wildlife trails on the school property spotting signs of both spring and wildlife.
Upon our return to the high school, we were greeted by Mr. Edwards and treated to a fisheries biology lesson and learned a little about the new aquaponics system he had installed.
An April trip to the Covey at Hinds Creek Hunting Preserve was postponed until fall when we will learn about farmland management for upland game birds like turkey, quail and grouse.
One of the complimentary programs in which 4H members may choose to participate is the Wildlife Habitat Education Program (WHEP), which is a hands-on environmental education program.
WHEP students will spend additional time preparing for a fun opportunity to test their wildlife knowledge in a friendly competition with students of the same age. Not only do they need to be able to identify wildlife species and understand their likes/dislikes, they also need to be able to judge the quality of their habitat and understand what can be done to manage and/or improve that habitat to ensure the success of that species.
This year, four students, Lexxi Cummings, Brantley King, Carter Roderick and Carter Rutherford, attended the WHEP competition in May and had a great time. It was held at the beautiful UT Arboretum in Oak Ridge and was a first time visit for all.
Lexxi Cummings advises “just pretend it’s another practice and don’t be scared of competitions. You’ll have fun—especially in the outdoor portion where you are hiking, exploring and looking at wildlife habitats!”
Part of the competition is a Wildlife Challenge where students must identify wildlife by pelts, skulls, pictures and even some bird calls. Do you think you could identify a turkey call? How about a great horned owl?
Another competition in which our Outdoor Adventure group may be interested is the Outdoor Meat Cookery—after all, who doesn’t want to learn to cook outdoors on the family grill?
Cooking on the grill is a fun summer activity and we have really good volunteer leaders for this competitive project group. Both Debbie and Bill Morgan, as well as Elizabeth Tindell have been leading this group for several years now. Last year, Zeeva Boucher, Travis Hanna, Gracie, Jeremiah and Jonathon Tindell, and Meredeth and Silas Whitley all qualified for the state championships. Having fun and several years of practice certainly paid off for this group!
Forestry Judging is another branch of our Outdoor Adventure project group. We are looking forward to enticing a few students to give this challenge a try in September. They will need additional practices besides our usual adventures before attending the competition, but all of our Outdoor Adventure 4H members can already identify some of our most common trees. Learning all about trees and how they benefit our lives as humans has been a key component of many 4H lessons.
Archery is another outdoor recreation adventure some of the 4H kids have tried and in which there is a lot of interest. Everyone rotated through a beginner’s archery lesson at one of our Big Ridge State Park outings, the Smoky Mountain Homeschool 4H club took several students to the State Archery competition this past winter, and we have several 4H members attending Target SMART Camp, which is part of the 4H Shooting Sports program. Give it a try during our Outdoor Adventures and, if you like it and are dedicated, you may be interested in joining a competitive team.
If you are wondering how you can get involved with this group, when will they meet next, and what fun adventure will they take next, please call the UT Extension Union County office at 865-992-0685, email bbergero@utk.edu or join our Remind.com messaging group to receive text messages about each adventure. Just text ucoutdoors to 81010 and you should begin receiving messages. Looking forward to some fun summer adventures!