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Garrett Houin of the West Holmes High School FFA chapter has been named a national finalist for the Environmental Science and Natural Resources Agricultural Proficiency Award.
Only four FFA members nationwide are selected as national finalists in each agricultural proficiency award area.
Agricultural Proficiency awards honor FFA members who, through supervised agricultural experiences (SAEs), have developed specialized skills they can apply to future careers. Students compete in areas ranging from agricultural communications to wildlife management. Proficiency awards also are recognized at local and state levels and provide recognition to members exploring and becoming established in agricultural career pathways.
Being selected as a national finalist is a fitting culmination to Houin’s FFA career. During his time wearing the blue and gold jacket, Houin has won the state FFA proficiency award in the areas of Outdoor Recreation in 2022, Diversified Livestock in 2023 and Environemtal Science and Natural Resources in 2024. He also has been a top four state finalist in Service Learning and Equine Entrepreneurship, but this is the first time he has been selected as a national finalist.
Projects center on work with Ashland SWCD
Houin’s application centers on his experiences working with Ashland Soil and Water Conservation District since 2021. Houin initially worked with the staff at Ashland SWCD to develop a proposal to improve water quality in the Mohican River watershed by reducing nutrient loss from farm fields, which he submitted to the state Caring for Our Watersheds student competition.
As part of that process, not only was Houin’s project funded, providing 100 percent cost share for farmers to use Adapt N nitrogen modeling and Winfield United’s Field Forecasting Tool, but he also received first place in the state competition, winning $1,000 for the West Holmes High School science department. This was the first agriculturally focused proposal to win the statewide student competition.
Houin said he especially enjoyed how the proposal brought together private industry, farmers and government organizations to cross traditional boundaries and all work together to improve water quality and make a difference on the agricultural landscape.
After the success of his initial proposal, Houin again worked closely with Ashland SWCD in 2022 to develop a second proposal, this time to initiate and implement a conservation stewardship certification program. This proposal centered on using Field to Market’s Fieldprint calculator to objectively measure sustainability against both state and national benchmarks in areas including biodiversity, energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, irrigation water use, land use, soil carbon, soil conservation, and water quality.
The proposal was funded and implemented across Ashland County, and Houin was selected as the Caring for Our Watershed’s first two-time state finalist and award recipient.
Houin then developed a third proposal in 2023 in cooperation with his brother, Tristan, to write and publish an ebook Good Neighbor Guide for the Mohican River Watershed, providing residents with resources and connections to help them make better conservation choices to protect and preserve natural resources in their local watershed. The brothers were once again selected as state finalists in the Caring for Our Watershed state competition.
Other work done for Hazel Willis Woods
In addition to the proposals Houin developed, secured funding for and implemented in partnership with Ashland SWCD, he also coordinated a project to improve safety and accessibility at the Hazel Willis Woods, a 40-acre outdoor learning laboratory near Mifflin that is owned by the district.
Houin worked with the Hazel Willis Woods Compliance Committee and Ashland SWCD board to identify priority projects to enhance use of the woods, including adding trail cameras to the woods, renovating the outhouse facilities, and adding solar lighting to the facility.
The experiences sparked Houin’s passion for bringing together organizations to work cooperatively to improve environmental sustainability while improving on-farm profitability. Houin further investigated career choices in those areas by participating in a job shadowing project with Sunrise Cooperative during his senior year.
After exploring several educational options relating to precision agriculture, Houin chose to pursue a degree in agricultural engineering technology with a specialization in precision agriculture at the University of Tennessee at Martin, where he also competes as a steer wrestler on the men’s varsity rodeo team.
This summer Houin continued to explore career opportunities that combine environmental science with on-farm profitability as a precision technology intern with Heritage Cooperative.
Now that he has been selected as a national finalist, Houin will participate in an interview process prior to the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis in October where he shares his project details with a panel of interviewers. The scores will be combined with his written application score to determine national placings, which will be announced at the National Convention.
In addition to being recognized for his proficiency award excellence, Houin will receive his American FFA degree at the convention.