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| Range Days offered food, fun, fodder for thought |
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| Wednesday, 27 June 2007 09:51 | |||||||
 CAMPERS Range Days participants camp out on the playground at Meadowlark School. I-O Photo by Buck Traxler “When I walk up and down the street, everyone asks me “Are you here for Range Days? We’re glad you came,” said Taylor Brown, renowned radio broadcaster for the Northern Ag Network and a co-sponsor of the premier event. “We appreciate all the local sponsors and all the different ways Conrad helped to make Range Days a success. Everyone stepped up to the plate,” said Paul Jones, a supervisor on the Pondera County Conservation District, which co-hosted Range Days. Four-year-olds and 40-year-olds from as far away as Alzada and as close as Conrad took ribbons, prizes and more knowledge home from the 31st annual Montana Range Days in Conrad this week. Local and state sponsors awarded more than 90 honors to Buckaroos, Super Starters, Wranglers, youth and adults at the end of the three-day celebration of Montana’s largest, most enduring natural resource. Conrad’s Justin Ratzburg took fifth place in the Wrangler division of the range utilization competition. More than 200 teens and elementary age children -- and their parents -- learned how and why our grasslands feed and clothe people, offer open space for more than 50 species of big game and other wildlife, filter our water and reduce carbon dioxide. “We have more than 65 million acres of private and public rangelands in Montana,” Jones said. “Those vast expanses of grasses, shrubs and other plants form the foundation for our state’s economy, environment and beauty.” This premier event rotates among Montana’s towns every two years so visitors can learn about the state’s different types of rangelands. Next year, Montana Range Days will again be held in Pondera County, but the workshop and competition locations will be different. Participants spent Tuesday, rotating among various workshops or traveling on adult tours. Workshops at the Graham Ranch included learning best land management practices, how soils influence plants and water, how to identify plants and what makes them different and how to follow changes in range conditions. Adults toured the Blackleaf Wildlife Management Area, the Western Triangle Experiment Station, Froggies Stopping Place along the Whoop-Up Trail and the Tepee Ring Bison Ranch. The Montana Wool Growers Association provided a lamb barbecue lunch on Tuesday. After a banquet at Utterback Middle School, the Conrad city pool allowed participants to swim and the teens, especially, enjoyed the dance. The Conrad school district allowed people to camp on the school grounds and use the cafeteria at Meadowlark School. On Wednesday, after a day of learning, Super Starters (ages 9-11), Wranglers (ages 12-13), Youth (ages 14-19) and Open Class (ages 14-114) competed in plant anatomy, plant identification, range sites, monitoring, range planning and stocking rate competitions. The Pondera Conservation District, the Natural Resources Conservation District and the Northern Ag Network sponsored this 31st annual Montana Range Days. “We hope everyone who cares about Montana will join us next year for some fun and maybe learn something along the way,” Jones says.
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