BYU Range Management Team Secures Top Honors at Competition

Photo by April Hulet

The Utah Society for Range Management (SRM) is an international organization committed to promoting better guardianship over our rangeland natural resources. Every year, the Utah SRM holds an annual Utah Section Meeting where students from various colleges compete in the Undergraduate Range Management Exam (URME) and Plant ID competition. This year, the represented colleges included Brigham Young University, Utah State University, Southern Utah University, and Snow College.

Photo by April Hulet

The BYU team began preparing for this meeting at the conclusion of the national competition last January. They meet for an hour twice a week, once to practice for the URME and again for plant identification. Most of the team dedicated additional hours outside of their scheduled practice times to review the material.

BYU student Sylvia Duke (PWS ‘25) believes the most important part of her preparation was spiritual. “I’ve been given this knowledge and passion to glorify God and His creations, so I strive to involve Him in my studying and learning,” she explained. “I had a constant prayer in my heart throughout the exams that the Lord would be with me and open my eyes to see things as He does.”

Upon arriving at the meeting, the BYU team moved 40 students into a small room with 100 mounted pressed plants for the plant identification test. The students were allotted one minute for each specimen to identify its scientific name, taxonomic family, whether it was annual or pre-annual, and whether it was native or introduced.

Photo by April Hulet

After lunch, the BYU team took the URME, a 64-question multiple-choice exam covering the principles of rangeland management. After completing the exam, the students and professors spent the remainder of the day listening to presenters and networking with professionals.

Another student on the team, Samuel Leigh (PWS ‘25), shared that being in the wildlife and wildlands conversation major helped him prepare for the competition. He values studying a topic he is passionate about. “Being good stewards of this earth is really important to me,” Leigh explained, “because seeing how beautiful and complex the earth is has become a testimony to me that God loves us, and I want to show Him that I love him too.” Leigh also expressed gratitude to Professor Matt Madsen, April Hulet, and their graduate students—Melissa Burrell, Raechel Hunsaker, and Janetta Teichert—who serve as coaches for the team and organized the event.

The BYU team is now prepping for the international competition in February 2025.