Ohio Department of Forestry to host Conservation Camp

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – This summer, the Ohio Forestry Association is encouraging kids to get out of the house and experience the great outdoors.

The organization will be hosting a conservation camp for high school students from June 11th through 16th at FFA Camp Muskingum. Campers will partake in numerous outdoor activities such as tree ID’ing, hiking, stream sampling and much more.

“One of the cool things about this camp is that while we have classes, you’re not just sitting behind a desk,” said Jeremy Scherf, Service Forester for the Ohio Department of Forestry. “You’re in the woods with somebody such as myself who works in natural resources or with a wildlife biologist learning about different species of wildlife and where they live. You might even be in the woods with a forester learning about how we measure trees and manage timber so it’s just a neat experience.”

The Ohio Forestry Association will also be offering a handful of scholarships to campers as well.

“At the end of the week the kids are actually competing for over $5,000 in college scholarships and those are being offered from Ohio State University, Ohio University and Hocking College,” said Scherf.

Although times can be tough, the organization is more than willing to work alongside families to help pay for their child’s admission.

“The camp fee is $375 and we do have financial assistance so we don’t want to let money be an issue that keeps a kid from coming to camp,” said Scherf. “There’s a lot of businesses and organizations in the logging industry that will help pay for a kid to come to camp.”

For more information about the camp, you can contact the Ohio Department of Natural Resources office at (614) 265-6860.