2007 Southeastern Wildlife Conclave
March 15-17 2007
Rock Eagle 4-H Center
The University of Georgia
Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
Athens, Georgia

About Rock Eagle:

Rock Eagle 4-H Center is located north of Eatonton, Georgia, adjacent to the Oconee National Forest. The property consists of 1,428 acres of forested land, including a 110 acre lake. Opened in 1955, Rock Eagle is the largest of five centers operated by the University of Georgia as support for the state's 4-H Program. At Rock Eagle, thousands of young people annually participate in the Georgia 4-H Environmental Education Program, as well as the Summer Camping Program made available through Georgia's County Extension Offices. Rock Eagle has eight conference buildings, auditorium, fifty four cottages, Natural History Museum, seven open air pavilions, chapel, pools and more. See http://www.rockeagle4h.org/ for more information.

Lodging:

Lodging for conclave will be provided at Rock Eagle’s 54 cottages which hold up to 20 people each. All cottages have a living room, two group lodging rooms which share large shower and restroom facilities, and a private room with private bath and two single beds. All cottages have air conditioning and heat. Linens will not be provided: each person will need to bring linens or a sleeping bag, towels, and all personal items. Schools will be assigned to cottages based on the number of students attending.

Tentative Schedule:

Date Time Event
Thursday March 15th 12:00 PM Registration Begins
6:00-10:00 PM Dinner and social with bluegrass band; game-calling competition*
Friday March 16th 8:00 - 12:00 PM Quiz Bowl Competition, Rounds 1 and 2
12:00 - 1:00 PM Lunch
12:00-5:00 PM Field Trips
6:00 PM Social and Dinner with Band (TBA)*
Saturday March 17th 8:00 - 12:00 PM Quiz Bowl semi-final and final rounds
1:00-6:00 PM Field Competitions
6:30 PM - Until Dinner and awards Banquet*
Sunday March 18th By 11:00 AM Checkout. Drive safe!!
*All persons must be 21 years of age or older to consume alcohol.

Registration and Payment

Registration cost is $135 per person which covers lodging, all meals from dinner Thursday through dinner Saturday, entertainment, and T-shirt. Each participating school should submit a list of participants and associated information by either mailing a completed hard copy of the form provided to the address below or emailing the completed Excel File (below) to: Sharon Valitzski (valitzskis@warnell.uga.edu) (preferred method!). For payment, each school must submit ONE check or money order to cover costs of all participants. Payments from individuals will not be accepted. Registration form and payment must be received by February 16th. Housing will be assigned according to the number of schools and number of participants per school.

Excel Registration File

Mail completed registration form and/or payment to:

The Wildlife Society, UGA Student Chapter
Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
University of Georgia
Athens, Georgia 30602

Field Trips

Each student should indicate the number for their top 3 field trip choices on the registration information list. Participants will be assigned to field trips on a first-come first-serve basis.

  1. Animal Damage Management
  2. Prescribed Fire
  3. UGA Captive Deer Facility
  4. Quality Deer Management Association Headquarters
  5. Radio Telemetry
  6. Red-cockaded Woodpecker Management
  7. Bald Eagle Monitoring
  8. Wildlife Diseases
  9. Herpetofauna Sampling
  10. Private Lands Conservation Programs
  11. Environmental Education
  12. Raptor Rehabilitation

Competitions and Rules:

Creative and Talent Competitions (15% of total score)

Entries for the creative and talent competitions must be submitted upon registration. Materials will be on display until judging. Individuals must be present to accept the award. The decision of the judges will be final.

Essay: The essay topic is "Public ownership versus privatization of wildlife: who is the better steward and who decides?" The essay must be typed, double-spaced, and no more than three pages not including the literature cited. Each participating school may enter only one essay. University of Georgia faculty and staff will perform judging. To eliminate biases, please do not put your name or school name on the essay.

Art: Categories include drawing, painting, and "free form" (e.g., sculptures, carving, etc.). Entries must have a wildlife-related theme. There will be a limit of three entries per student per category. Entries that have won any other competition will not be permitted.

Photography: Categories include black-and-white and color print. Pictures must contain a wildlife-related theme. There will be a limit of three entries per student per category. Entries that have been previously published or have won any other competition will not be permitted.

Game Calling: A calling contest will be held at the Thursday night social. The categories are duck, turkey, goose, other game, and non-game. The use of calling devices will be permitted. There will be a limit of two callers per category per school.

Skill Competitions (20% of total score)

Obstacle Course: Each school can enter one team of four members. Each team will be responsible for completing a series of tasks along a physically challenging course through the forest at Rock Eagle. Contestants should plan on getting wet and muddy; bring an extra set of clothes and dry pair of shoes. Winners will be determined based on time required to complete the course.

Archery: Compound, recurve, or long bows permitted; crossbows will not be permitted. Contestants should be prepared for 15-20 targets along a 3-D course. There will be no restrictions on types of arrows. Shooters may not use range finders, but binoculars are allowed. Archery Shooters Association format (http://www.asaarchery.com) will be followed. No sharing of equipment will be allowed. Up to two shooters from each school may participate.

Canoe Competition: Each school may enter one team consisting of two members. Each team will be required to paddle a canoe through the designated course and return to shore. Winners will be determined based on time required to complete the course. Contestants must use canoes, paddles, and personal flotation devices provided.

Dendrology: Each club may enter up to two contestants. A total of twenty (20) designated trees, shrubs, or vines will be shown to the entire group of contestants. All specimens will come from the specified list of species. Equipment permitted for the contest includes optical aids, such as hand lenses and binoculars. Answers must be submitted to the judges within three minutes.

Radiotelemetry: Each school may enter one team consisting of two members. Each team will be required to triangulate locations of transmitters from fixed stations. Receivers and compasses will be provided. Each team will be timed to handle tie breakers.

Orienteering: Each school may enter up to two contestants. Contestants will be given distances and bearings to complete an open traverse. Finishing places will be determined by the distance of each contestant’s end point to the true end point. Each contestant must supply his/her own compass. No distance measuring devices will be permitted. Traverses will be timed in case of a tie.

Pistol Shooting: .22 pistols only. No scopes, and less than a 10” barrel. Up to two shooters per school. Participants will shoot targets at set distances and will be judged on accuracy. All pistols must be locked in the Rock Eagle safe prior to and after the competition.

Individual Lab Practical: Each school may enter only one person. Competitors will complete a rigorous lab practical covering topics typical of classes in a wildlife curriculum. General topics will include, but not be limited to, zoology, botany, and wildlife techniques. The format will be 25 stations with 2 questions per station.

Team Competition (30% of total score)

Each school may enter one team; there is no limit on the number of participants per team. Stations will be set up along a trail and teams will be allowed a set amount of time to get to the station and complete the questions. Stations will cover a wide variety of natural resources-related topics including, but not be limited to, plant and animal identification, equipment usage, techniques, and habitat assessment. Teamwork will be emphasized. Team members should wear appropriate clothing and footwear. Scores from all stations will be totaled to determine winners.

Quiz Bowl (35% of total score)

Quiz bowl will consist of double elimination tournament in which teams gain points by answering questions asked by a moderator. After successfully answering a “toss-up” question, the team will be given a multi-part “bonus” question. Toss up and bonus questions will cover material relevant to natural resource management.

Rules

  1. Each team (one team/school) may consist of up to five players with no more than four participating at once (i.e., one team member will be an alternate). There may be no more than two graduate students per team. A graduate student is defined as a person that does not hold an advanced degree. However, Ph.D. students are not eligible to compete in Quiz Bowl even if they do not hold an advanced degree.
  2. Team pairings will be chosen at random for the first match. Pairings in subsequent matches will be determined by a team’s ability to win. If a team advances to the final match unbeaten, the challenging team (winner from the loser’s bracket) must beat the undefeated team in two consecutive matches to win first place.
  3. Matches will last 10 minutes, except for the final match, which will last 15 minutes.
  4. When the final bell rings, the match is over. If the match ends while a question is being asked, the match ends at that point. If the final bell rings while a toss-up or bonus question is being answered, the match ends after the allotted time for the answer has expired. For the purpose of this rule, players who have signaled, but have not been acknowledged, will be allowed to answer. Should time expire while a toss-up question is being answered correctly, there will be a bonus question awarded if it has bearing on the outcome of the match.
  5. On all questions, the first answer given will be the one accepted (i.e., there will be no second thoughts). The moderator reserves the right to ask the respondent to "be more specific."
  6. If the pronunciation of the answer is unclear to the moderator, the respondent may be asked to spell the answer. If spelled incorrectly, the answer will be considered incorrect.
  7. The team with the highest score at the end of the match will be the winner.
  8. If the score is tied at the end of the match, the match will be extended an additional 5 minutes.
  9. A judging committee of the host school faculty members, professional wildlife biologists, etc., will be the referees of any challenge that may arise.

Specific Rules for Toss-up Questions

  1. Matches begin with a toss-up question open to both teams. Each toss up question is worth ten points.
  2. Following the reading of a toss-up question, 5 seconds will be allowed for a team to signal for an answer. A team member signals to answer by pressing a button that activates a buzzer and light. Only one person may answer a toss-up question. The first team member to respond is indicated by their individual light.
  3. If no one signals within the allotted time, the moderator will give the answer and the next question will be asked.
  4. The moderator will acknowledge the signal by verbally announcing the team member’s school and number of the player. If the player answers before being acknowledged, the moderator will state the answer cannot be accepted and the opposing team will be given a chance to signal (5 seconds), be verbally acknowledged, and answer. This rule applies irrespective of whether the unaccepted answer given is correct or incorrect!
  5. The team member acknowledged has 10 seconds to answer the question. If the answer is heard from the audience, the question will be discarded. If any discussion occurs between members of a team on a toss-up question, that team forfeits the right to gain points and the other team gets a chance to answer after being acknowledged. This applies regardless if an answer was heard or not.
  6. Should a team member give a wrong answer to a toss-up question, the opposing team has five seconds in which to signal after the moderator announces that the answer is incorrect. The team member will then be verbally acknowledged and allowed 10 seconds to answer the question.
  7. A team member may signal to answer a toss-up question as it is being asked. When this occurs, the moderator will stop reading at that point. If, after being verbally acknowledged, the answer given is wrong, the entire question is repeated for the opposing team. One team member of the opposing team must signal and be verbally acknowledged as in all toss-up questions. In the event that a member of the opposing team signals before the question has been repeated, the moderator will stop reading the question, and acknowledge that team member for the answer. If the question was completed, it will not be repeated.

Specific Rules for Bonus Questions

  1. A bonus question will consist of 1, 2, or 4 parts. The bonus question, a total of 20 points, will be divided accordingly.
  2. Bonus questions are a team effort, but the answer decided upon for each part can only be accepted from the team captain. The team will have a total of 30 seconds in which to answer all parts after the question is completely read.
  3. All bonus questions will be oral, audio, video/slide, or carry-on specimen(s).

Challenges

If an answer to a toss-up question ruled incorrect is believed to be correct by the answering team, the player can challenge the moderator’s ruling by appealing to the judging committee. Challenges can be made only after the opposing team has had an opportunity to answer. Also, if a member of the opposing team believes an answer ruled correct is incorrect, a challenge to the judging committee may be made. To challenge, a team member should activate the buzzer/light and wait to be verbally recognized. When a challenge is made, the clock will stop until the judges have made a decision. Challenges to toss-up questions must be made before the bonus or next toss-up question is read. Bonus questions may also be challenged before the next toss-up question is read. In all cases, the decision of the judges is final!

Conclave Scoring

The overall conclave winner will be determined the total number of points accumulated over all competitions. Competition categories will be weighted as follows:

Event Percent of Total Score
Creative and Talent Competitions 15%
Skill Competitions 20%
Team Competition 30%
Quiz Bowl 35%

Links

Rock Eagle
Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
The Wildlife Society

Sponsors




Contact Information

Name Position Email
Sharon Valitzski Conclave Co-ordinator e-mail
Jay Scott Conclave Co-ordinator e-mail
Jason Kinsey President e-mail
Steven Castleberry TWS Faculty Advisor e-mail
Mike Mengak TWS Faculty Advisor e-mail