GenCon Summit Sees Significant Growth in Year Two

HOT SPRINGS — The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s second Generation Conservation Summit can boast a 68 percent growth rate in schools or groups participating from Year One, and more than 100 percent growth over last year in students who attended the two-day event at Bank OZK Arena and the Hot Springs Convention Center Nov. 4-5.

An astute businessman like former AGFC commissioner Bobby Martin, who has led such national brands as The Gap Inc., obviously will like those growth figures.

“It’s amazing,” Martin said at the conclusion of the summit, with award winners mingling about and many of the more than 2,000 students who attended heading home after two days. “I think all of us always thought that this could work, but now there’s no question about believing it. You’re seeing the kids participate, the teachers are engaging and schools are participating. To see that kind of growth, that just has to continue to raise our expectations even greater for next year.”

The number of participating schools rose from 110 last November to 185 this year. Some came to learn and engage in outdoor experiences, while others were serious competitors, approaching the summit similar to a track meet: Students entered more than two dozen categories of conservation experiences modeled after divisions within the AGFC itself. Jasper was the winner among elementary schools, while Lincoln won both the middle and high school divisions. Elementary and middle school teams had Wednesday to themselves, though many youngsters stuck around for Thursday, when high school competitions were held. Lincoln’s high school students outdistanced strong showings from Springdale Har-Ber, Cossatot, Lead Hill and Genoa Central during Thursday’s program.

Rae Wynn-Grant, Ph.D., the host of NBC’s “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom,” gave the summit’s keynote on Wednesday evening. Grant’s talk likely resonated with some students, noting she grew up “a very urban kid with no outdoor experiences.” But magazines and outdoor TV shows, like “Crocodile Hunter,” exposed her to animals and stirred her interest as a youngster, creating her path to work with animals. She studied abroad in college in Kenya, helping animals survive and thrive.

She’s now a wildlife ecologist, specifically for large carnivores, with a focus on bears. She’s filmed TV episodes for “Wild Kingdom” and for PBS in Arkansas, including features on bears and the Red River’s alligator gars. 

Grant told the kids, “There is a place in wildlife conservation for you.”

That’s what Martin, Commission chairman from 2022-24, and Mary Beth Hatch, chief of the AGFC’s Education Division, had in mind for GenCon when it was conceived: bring students from elementary age to high school together to experience conservation in its many forms.

Observers of GenCon activities last week might see youngsters playing with sand; actually, that sand filled a stream table and they were learning how water changes land formations and how the AGFC’s Stream Team and Stream Habitat programs restore areas damaged by erosion. Participants checked out the internal anatomy of a 20-foot-tall turkey, a 30-foot-long largemouth bass and climbed through a massive inflatable cave that complemented one of last year’s favorites: the smaller mobile cave for spelunking. There was rock climbing, casting fishing lures at targets, catching trout, shooting air rifles, designing a two-page spread that could run in Arkansas Wildlife Magazine or an AGFC nature center exhibit, and many other experiences and competitions.

“You know, when we talked through this idea before it all started in Year One, this is what I’ve said, and it still stands right now, is that this entire event is meant to replicate the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission,” Hatch said. “It represents all the divisions in the agency. Sure, Education is leading it, and we’re the ones putting it on, but you can look around the event, you can look at the judges, you can look at the leads, they literally come from every division in our agency. And that’s because we run like that.”

Increased sponsorships for experiences also were noticeable. For example, Buc-ee’s, the famed Houston-based chain of massive gasoline and shopping stores that recently opened its first location in Arkansas near Benton, sponsored the culinary competition, won by Norfork High School with their spin on specklebelly goose.

Hatch acknowledged the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation for its help in bringing in additional sponsors, as well as the work Martin has done since the idea of GenCon began. 

Martin said, “This is not going to happen without the right kind of sponsorship and support, and the bigger it gets, the more is going to be required. But, we’re seeing the result with the kids and what we know that means to the future of Arkansas. It’s about as exciting as anything I think could be going on for young people in this state.”

Other notable wins among the high schoolers were Hamburg High both for STEM in Conservation and GIS Story Map Design; Lincoln with its social media campaign and Nature Center Exhibit Design; Izard County STEM in Debate; Har-Ber in the Quiz Bowl and Lonoke’s Zach Miller and Jacob Hale in Game Calling.

A full listing of winners can be found at https://www.agfc.com/education/generation-conservation.

CUTLINES: 

WILL HE BITE?
Eric Maynard, an Education Division assistant chief, shows a wide-eyed youngster a young alligator as part of the many experiences made available to youth during the two-day Generation Conservation Summit.

FOLLOW MY LEAD
TV personality and ecologist Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant told youth at Wednesday’s summit keynote address that there “is a place in conservation” for all of them.

NOT BUILDING SAND CASTLES
This type of “sandbox” teaches students how water erodes land and what the AGFC’s Stream Team must do to combat it.

BASS AND BIGGER BASS
A couple of high school anglers take on the “pond” with targets for casting their lures while the 30-foot-long inflatable largemouth bass in the background attracts attention on the Convention Center floor.