Range Days to teach about outdoors

Range Days, a three-day event to teach students of all ages about identifying plants and assessing land for ranch use, begins today at Camp Kiwanis.

Jennifer Kenck, administrator at Hill County Conservation District, said that this year is the second year the event will be held in Hill County

“It’s been 10 years since this event was even close to Havre,” Kenck said.

The event spends two years at a town and then moves to another host.

Range Days is part of a state-wide program and changes host towns every two years.

“It’s Montana’s largest range education event,” Kenck said.

People of all ages attend the event, Kenck said — from between 4-years-old and late adulthood.

The mid- to late-teenage attendees will be able to learn about soil and plant identification and plant anatomy at the event.

They will also be taught how to figure out carrying capacities of graze land.

Local ranchers will speak to the attendees about how they plan their operations. There will also be instructor who have been working for agencies for decades, Kenck said.

“The younger kids are broken into groups and they do activities that are more active and engaging,” Kenck said. “It’s all about learning about plants through art projects.”

The kids’ chaperones, Kenck said, will be able to take a tour Monday of Dalmatian Toad Flax, an area where the Bureau of Land Management is growing bio-controlled plants and Tuesday, they can go to all the museums in Chinook.

Wednesday, they can tour the Wahkpa Chu'gn Buffalo Jump and Havre Beneath the Streets.

There is still time to sign up for the event, Kenck said. Anyone can go to Camp Kiwanis to sign up until 8 a.m. Tuesday. Those interested can also register online at the Montana Range Days website.

Wednesday will also hold the testing day for the children and adults who want to compete for prizes, Kenck said.

“We test them on all the things they learned the day before,” Kenck said, adding that the test will be over determining stocking rate, identifying soils and plants and other topics.

Registration is $55 per person or $110 for a family rate.

Kenck said she highly recommends the event to anyone looking to learn more about the topics covered in the three-day Range Days.

“Aside from taking a summer college course, I don’t know any other place where you can learn so much,” Kenck said. “For what you’re paying, it’s invaluable.”