This article was contributed by Devii Rao, livestock and natural resources advisor for the UC Cooperative Extension.
The California Range & Natural Resources Camp is usually a week-long summer camp for high school students 14-18 years old. It has been running for over 30 years. During camp, students learn about management of plants, livestock, wildlife, and landscapes from university and cooperative extension faculty, land management agency staff, and other professionals.
This year, because of COVID-19, we are not able to have our regular in-person camp. Instead we are having Virtual Camp! Subject matter specialists have put together more than 20 new videos just for us, ranging in time from 2-15 minutes. Video topics include rangeland ecology and management, botany, ranch economics, wildlife, grazing animal nutrition, ornithology, fire, and a great series of interviews with people about their careers in in this exciting field, and with students about their college experiences. Some of the videos even give you science-based activities you can do from your home or a local park.
The Virtual California Range Camp is free, but students must register in order to get an email with the link to the videos. Range Camp T-shirts will be given to the first 20 students who register (must be high school students!).
Virtual range campers will watch the videos and then join us on Aug. 31 at 3 p.m. for a one-hour live Zoom webinar to discuss their questions and ideas with experts in the field of range management and natural resources!
Register here: http://ucanr.edu/rangecamp2020.