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The Southeast Area Forestry Contest was held at the Buckingham Appomattox State Forest in Buckingham on Nov. 10. The forestry contest tests the FFA member’s knowledge on tree identification, equipment identification, estimating volume of trees and reading topographic maps. In addition to those parts of the contest, members of the senior division had to explain their choice of removing or leaving trees in their timber stand improvement part of the contest while the junior division had to estimate the value of the given trees.

Two teams from Buckingham County Middle School competed. Team A placed first overall with team members Sarah Bryant (tied fourth individually), Grace Martin (second individually), Alex Morris (seventh individually) and Ben Gilliam (tied fourth individually).  Team B placed second overall with team members Ryland Carter (first individually), Trent Ragland (sixth individually), Luke Gilliam and Morgan Morris. Both teams will advance to the Virginia State Forestry contest in April.

Buckingham Senior FFA also had two teams compete at the contest. Team A won its division with team members Jordan Dorrier, Noah Jones, Tyler Padgett (fifth individually) and Emma Staton (fourth individually). The team’s win allows the students to advance to the State Contest in April.

Team B placed sixth overall with members Hunter Branch, Jake Carter, Andrew Dorrier and Leah Scott. Chris Milbrath also competed as an individual in the junior division.

The Buckingham FFA forestry team members would like to thank Henry Paris for his support in assisting with coaching the teams.