DANVILLE — Danville FFA participated in the state Environmental and Natural Resources contest on Saturday, April 22.
Catlin Ball and Alayna Wittel represented Danville and placed 15th in the state. This is a record placing for Danville at the state contest.
At the contest, members work together to complete practicums over soil quality, water quality, environmental analysis, using a GPS, and waste management. For the soils analysis, they find runoff curves for a field, the highly erodible land rating, and use a transit level to find elevations and slope.
At the aquatics station, they find the pH and dissolved oxygen levels of a water sample and determine water quality levels, along with identify macroinvertebrates to determine water quality.
During the environmental analysis, members identified 10 marked species, identify 10 other species from the area, identify the stage of succession, and explain how to improve habitat for a given species.
At the GPS station, members write down latitude and longitude of given points and identify what is found at them, along with finding the difference between points.
For the waste management practicum, students are given a scenario for fertilizer application and they have to determine fertilizer application rates, nutrient levels, and application dates.
To even qualify for the state contest, members had to take an online test and data analysis questions, then submit a video recording of a presentation in answer to a prompt.
