Virginia's Nottoway-Brunswick 4-H team returned from Texas with two top-ten finishes in the National 4-H Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Invitational. Teams from 26 states participated in this annual judging contest, held August 10 - 14 in the "hill country" near San Antonio.

Sarah Rhodes and Tony Ward of Nottoway County and Anna Ruth and Joseph Batman of Brunswick placed seventh in the "Backyard/Urban Wildlife Management Plan" and tenth in the "Rural Wildlife Management Plan" events. Final team results in the wildlife foods, aerial photo habitat judging, and management practice selection events are not available yet because of computer tabulation problems at the event.

In addition to the competition the team participated in highly educational field trips to the Kerr Wildlife Management/Whitetail Deer Research Area, the YO Ranch exotic game park, and the Enchanted Rock State Natural Area. The Virginia group also had the opportunity to tour the Alamo and to visit Sea World in San Antonio.

Among the more memorable experiences were up close encounters with armadillos and fire ants. One of the members learned not to sit on a cactus. The commercial airline flight to Texas was another exciting first experience for the 4-H'ers.