From Nov. 12 to 15, select students from Oxford Academy’s AP Science classes took part in the 2025-26 Forestry Challenge in the San Bernardino Mountains at Lake Arrowhead. The competition, consisting of a field examination and collaborative presentation, was focused on how to manage forests responsibly and ensure their sustainable management.
“It’s not just some classroom scenario, but it’s a real life situation and what they’re doing is helpful to the land,” Forestry Challenge Advisor, Mr. Nguyen said.
On Wednesday, Nov. 13, the participants made their way to their challenge where they stayed at the Hubert Eaton Scout Reservation in Running Springs. With exposure to the forest environment — a source of water, recreational spaces, and wildlife — the site provided the perfect backdrop for students to immerse themselves in hands-on experiences.
“It was really fun working with my teammates throughout the competition, as we were already friends from when we went together on the Forestry trip last year,” said senior participant, Cecilia Baltazar.
Prior to the event, students met up after school once a week over the duration of six weeks to prepare. They spent time familiarizing themselves with key forestry facts by practicing with sample quizzes and vocabulary. During the six-week training period, one key topic was addressed per meeting, including but not limited to: forest management, fire prevention, plant identification, map and compass use, measuring tree height and density, and how to determine the monetary value of lumber produced by trees.
“The workload was manageable while preparing for the Forestry Challenge, as the meetings were one day a week for one hour max.” Baltazar said.
The first step of the challenge, worth 60% of the team’s final score, placed students in small teams of three to five to complete a detailed field test, where essential components of forestry were examined. They identified tree species, took measurements, interpreted forest data, and made practical management recommendations. Each team was given a specific case study topic to investigate through an on-site field trip, where they collected information and asked questions.
“One example of a problem we had to work around was being sent to survey a plot of land that was full of huge live brush on a steep hill.” said another senior participant, Matthew Hong. “It was definitely not a good situation to be in as our equipment was barely usable (tape measures getting stuck on the shrubs, densitometer being pretty useless with no canopies) but we were laughing about it in the end.”
At the core of the Forestry Challenge was the final presentation, which was worth 40% of the final event score. For this final project, students composed a 15-minute presentation affiliated with their focus topic to showcase to a panel of judges.
“It definitely was stressful presenting considering everyone knew how important this presentation was but also was trying not to stress and be nervous about it, and we just kind of rolled with what we had.” said Hong.
Outstanding teams from previous years have even had opportunities to present their work to professional forestry organizations across California, including the CA Board of Forestry, the CA Licensed Foresters Association, and the Forest Landowners of CA.
“All the seniors on the trip got the multi-year senior award because this was our second time competing in the challenge.” Baltazar said. “Our team got 4th place, and the other Oxford team got 6th.”
Aside from the long hours of preparation, training, and competing, students were also given entertainment opportunities to relax, such as ziplining, tie-dye, team bonding games, karaoke, and a night hike.
“Even though the Forestry Challenge was a competition, these activities did make it feel like the focus wasn’t entirely on winning but also on learning and being out in nature.” said Hong.
After the four-day competition, the participating students returned on Saturday, Nov. 16, bringing home new skills in forestry and memories formed through teamwork and shared challenges.
“Before this event, I was interested in engineering and possibly becoming a civil engineer. But through this event, I found an interest in being outdoors…” Baltazar said. “I was able to learn more about environmental engineers and all the work I could do as one.”
