Forestry Camp Available to Students Throughout the Commonwealth

The Virginia Department of Forestry (VDOF) is accepting nominations for its annual Holiday Lake Forestry Camp. This is the 60th year the camp has provided teenagers the opportunity to experience forestry, wildland firefighting, wilderness survival, skeet shooting, natural resources conservation and much more.

"Forestry camp is an awesome experience," said Ellen Powell, VDOF Conservation Education coordinator and this year's Forestry Camp coordinator. "Where else can 13- to 16-year-old Virginians get hands-on experience with and exposure to forest resource management in a co-educational environment?"

This year's camp will be held June 19 - 24 at the Holiday Lake 4-H Educational Center, located within the 20,000-acre Appomattox-Buckingham State Forest - a working forest that provides a vast outdoor classroom within Virginia's largest state forest.

Teachers, forestry and wildlife professionals, Soil and Water Conservation Districts, 4-H and Scout leaders along with sponsoring organizations must nominate girls and boys who: have good academic standing, are between the ages of 13 and 16, have an interest in forestry, wildlife or related conservation activities, and have the potential to benefit from the Camp. Nominations are due April 21, 2006.

Due to the financial support of forest industries, conservation agencies and associations as well as individuals who are committed to educating tomorrow's leaders, the cost to each camper to attend the week-long, residential camp is just $55. Every student selected to attend camp receives a scholarship to cover all the other camp costs, such as food, lodging, materials, field trips and camp activities.

"The generosity of our supporters makes camp attainable for almost anyone who has the motivation and desire to participate in Forestry Camp," said Powell. "Without our donors, each camper would have to pay several hundred dollars to take advantage of this unique experience."

Courses include: Sustainable Forest Management Practices; Timber Harvesting and Reforestation; Environmental Protection; Wildlife Management and Habitat Improvement; Forest Ecology; Tree Measurements and Tree Identification. Other camp opportunities include: a high-ropes course, skeet marksmanship; wilderness survival; canoeing; stream quality analysis; forest fire equipment and tactics; arborist training, as well as field trips to an active logging operation and to a modern paper mill.

All instructors are professional foresters, wildlife biologists or conservation resource specialists.

"One of the favorite activities of the campers is the Lumberjack Field Day," said Powell. "Campers participate in log rolling, crosscut sawing and other, traditional outdoor skills contests. It's a blast!"

Nomination forms are available at www.dof.virginia.gov/edu/camp-form.shtml, and additional information is available online at www.dof.virginia.gov/edu/camp.shtml.

The week-long camp is also open to elementary, middle and high school teachers who are interested in obtaining recertification credits and training in Project Learning Tree curricula.

For more information, call Ellen Powell at 434.977.6555 or email her at ellen.powell@dof.virginia.gov.

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Note to Editors: High-quality (8.2 mp) digital photos from last year's camp are available for your use. If you would like one or two photos, please email Gregg O'Donnell at gregg.odonnell@dof.virginia.gov and he will email you the photos.

The Virginia Department of Forestry protects and develops healthy, sustainable forest resources for Virginians. Headquartered in Charlottesville, there are Forestry staff members assigned to every county to provide service to citizens of the Commonwealth. VDOF is an equal opportunity provider.

With nearly 16 million acres of forest land and more than 248,000 Virginians employed in the forest products industry, Virginia forests provide more than $30 billion annually in benefits to the Commonwealth.