Professor and chair of the MSU Department of Forestry Richard Kobe said MSU had its own team of students from the MSU Forestry Club participating in the events.

“Some of (the events involved) how quickly you can saw through a log with a two-person saw,” Kobe said. “There’s also other things like orienteering through the woods, finding your way through the woods with a compass, trying to get back to the same place where you started.”

Ryan Hauser-Jeryc, who is president of the MSU Forestry Club, helped organize the event since starting in mid-April of last year.

“I have been finding places for 220 students from around the Midwest to camp for two nights and finding food venues to have breakfast, lunch and dinner,” he said. “(I’m also) in charge of getting sponsors to help with offsetting the cost of the event so that the students don’t have to pay an ungodly amount to come and compete.”

Held in conjunction with the Midwestern Foresters’ Conclave was The STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Series. Top professional and collegiate lumberjacks from across the region competed in a variety of lumberjacking events.

The STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Series is the longest-running show on ESPN, other than SportsCenter.

“It’s a strange sport, but it definitely has a really passionate fanbase,” said Brad Sorgen, producer of the STIHL TIMBERSPORTS Series. “That’s what’s allowed us to be as long-running on ESPN has we have been. You’re flipping through the channels, you see something interesting in your state. It’s very unique, it’s interesting and it’s different.”

For the Collegiate Series, the student who placed first received a $1,000 scholarship from STIHL. The student would also be invited to compete in the national championship in Pigeon Ford, Tennessee this summer.

MSU was represented in the Collegiate Series of the competition by forestry senior Raymond Gurley, who placed fifth with 14 points. Ben Hansen from University of Wisconsin placed first with 26 points.

Gurley, who grew up with 50 acres of timber in his home in Burt, Mich., said he cut and sold firewood in high school for Future Farmers of America.

“I just go out back and look for a white pine I want to take down for boards or something, and then I chop it down instead of cutting it with a chainsaw,” Gurley said.

The Collegiate Series included four disciplines — underhand chop, the single buck chop, the standing block and and the stock saw.

As a member of the MSU Forestry Club, Gurley said he was honored to be able to represent MSU in the competition.

“There’s no one else on campus who does this stuff, so Forestry Club is a pretty cool thing to get involved with and represent the whole university with something like this,”
Gurly said.