Future ranchers learn at Chico

It might have seemed like a busman’s holiday — a group of ranch kids visiting Chico Basin Ranch.

But the ranch was the perfect setting for the students, who were receiving two days of training from the Division of Wildlife at the Lone Star Prairie School House, as the century-old, one-room structure on the ranch is called.

The students are in Karval High School’s Ranch and Wildlife (RAW) project, which has goals similar to those of Chico Basin — sharing a connection to the land with others.

Karval is about 80 miles east of Colorado Springs. The RAW students will educate fourth-graders from Colorado Springs schools in a special program they have helped create. It’s a joint effort of the high school, Karval Community Alliance and a local chapter of The National FFA Organization (formerly Future Farmers of America).

Last spring, Evangelical Christian Academy participated in the pilot program, and several schools are lined up for this year.

The fourth-graders are invited to Karval-area ranches, where the Karval students act as guides and lecturers. The program has received grants to buy equipment such as binoculars, and to provide gasoline money to urban schools that want to take the field trips. The curriculum focuses on science observation, bird identification, ecology and ranch life.

Mark Carling, Karval science teacher, says the program was hatched last year by Katie Mereweather, then a senior at the school. Since then, students and several agencies have created a curriculum guide other school districts can use.

Courtney Wezel, a Karval senior, participated in a trial run of the program last year. “It was really fun. The fourth-graders knew more than I thought. They were excited and paid attention and really participated.”

The Karval students got a lot out of recent workshops at Chico Basin.

Sheri Logan, a parent and member of the Karval Community Alliance, says, “It’s been an eye-opener. Many of the kids are going to be ranchers, and it showed them what sort of enterprises they can do on the ranches.”

Carling says the visit to Chico and the RAW project also enabled the students to interact with biologists and other professionals, and thus expand their professional horizons.

It has another benefit, too, he says.

“The kids are getting connected to who they are. That it’s OK to be rural, to be a rancher, and that it is neat to know these things.”