By Jeremy Padilla
LAS CRUCES, N.M. — The New Mexico State University Range Club provides a place for students to experience community, excel academically and prepare their future careers after graduation.
The NMSU Range Club is not focused on Range Science majors only as it is open to all students who are enrolled at New Mexico State. The club participates in hikes, community outreach for internships and ranch work, which helps students build a portfolio. Club hikes gives students the chance to practice plant collection and mounting workshops for classes and preparing for the plant identification test.
President Parker McMillan, a Range Science major from Silver City, New Mexico, has been a part of the Range Club for four years and has been able to build community within the club.
“The nice thing about the Range Club is that it’s a close community, where we can all help each other out,” McMillan said. “We’ve had students work for NRCS, which has helped other students get internships.”
McMillan has been heavily involved with the Range Club since joining as a member in 2022.
“I started as a member,” McMillan said. “I’ve been the treasurer and ACES representative, so I’ve been working my way up.”
Recently this past February, 12 students of the NMSU Range Club attended the Society for Range Management annual professional conference in Monterey, California. SRM allows for students to network with professionals in their industry and to gain more experience under their belt.
These students endured the 16-hour drive and were able to place fifth in the Undergraduate Range Management Examination. The club would meet once a week studying for the exam. During the drive, the students experienced the chance to drive along the Pacific Coast Highway and stopped at Sequoia National Park.
The students also created a poster for Rangeland Cup, which was to identify a traditional range management practice and explain how the traditional knowledge can influence modern-day and future practices. The students at NMSU chose the country of Kenya for their poster. The poster did not place but scored 117 of 120. For the poster students had to prepare themselves for any questions a judge or another competing student may ask.
Plant identification was another event the club participated in at SRM. Students were given a master list of 200 plants to study for before the competition. 100 plants were selected and students are given a minute each to identify each plant. This includes whether the plant is native or introduced, annual or perennial, the family or tribe, the genus and the species. NMSU didn’t place as a team or as any individuals. The plant identification team would meet at least once a week to quiz each other and would increase meetings the closer it got to SRM.
Students who attend the conference, are encouraged to get involved with multiple of the competitions hosted by SRM, whether that be the plant Identification, URME, extemporary speaking or the Rangeland Cup. Every NMSU student took the URME, three took the plant identification, five did extemporary speaking and four participated in the Rangeland Cup.
In preparation for SRM, students are informed five to six months in advance of their prompt. In order to attend SRM, the Range Club hosts fundraisers and does volunteer work to get reimbursed. The club does ranch work on weekends which gives students more hands-on work plus it helps raise money for the club.
The Range Club plans to host a bake sale sometime later this semester. The club also recently participated and hosted a table at STEM career night at Conlee Elementary School, Thursday, March 12.
The NMSU Range Club meets the second and fourth Wednesday every month, at 6 p.m. in Knox Hall room 238. The next club meeting will be 6 p.m. Wednesday, March 25.
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