By Kyle Arechiga

The Granada Hills Charter (GHC) Forestry Team earned second place in the 2024-2025 Forestry Challenge Championship held April 23-25 at Camp Sylvester, located in Stanislaus National Forest.
The annual statewide event, organized by the non-profit Forestry Challenge, brought together student teams from across the state to test their ecological skills and knowledge.

Teams were evaluated on a series of rigorous tasks including field tests, data management, and problem-solving related to forest management. Each team also had to create a management recommendation for a real-world forestry issue.

“A part of the competition consisted of testing our field skills such as using forestry tools like the clinometer, to measure the height of a tree, compass, and biltmore stick, to measure the number of logs in a tree” senior Natalie Azadian said. “We also had to have a good understanding of forest ecology and how all different types of organisms interact with the forest environment.”

One of the most challenging components was the presentation, where teams had just six hours, split across two days, to analyze a forestry problem and develop a detailed solution.

This year’s prompt involved proposing a forest management plan based on site-specific data. Teams were encouraged to consult professional foresters during the process. Preparation was a crucial factor in GHC’s performance. The team focused, studied and prepared for weeks leading up to competition day.

“So much of our spare time was set aside to study and review concepts and vocabulary for forestry management and ecology,” Azadian said. “We struggled to create a solution or recommendation to the problem in the time that we had. However, we split up the work and talked to professional foresters to better understand the advantages and disadvantages to our solutions so we could reach a solid conclusion.”

The students are already looking ahead, with many planning to return next year to build on their performance. In the meantime, they’ll continue learning, working with local foresters, and preparing for next season.

The Highlanders are already setting their sights on building on this year’s success. In the meantime, they’ll continue working with local foresters and strengthening their knowledge and skills. For those graduating, the advice is simple: take it all in.

“Just be in the moment and enjoy what you are doing and where you are,” senior Adam Alvarez said. “This competition is meant to be fun but at the same time challenging in order to come up with new solutions regarding forest management.”