There were 160 Moniteau County elementary students, with their teachers, who attended the Soil and Water Conservation District and Progressive Agriculture Annual Student Conservation Safety Day.
The event on Wednesday, May 4, at the Moniteau County Fairgrounds in California, drew fifth grade students from California R-I and Tipton R-VI, and fifth and sixth graders from High Point R-III.
There were many sponsors of the event which included eight sessions of safety-related conservation training. Coordinated by the Moniteau County Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD), volunteers included those from SWCD, Missouri Department of Conservation, Natural Resources Conservation Service, volunteers of City of California Fire Department and the railroad.
Safety issues encountered by many in more rural areas and activities were included in the training sessions. Those areas include wildlife, health fire, fisheries, forestry, farm safety, railroad safety and hunter safety.
The event is designed for the attending youth to learn more about safety in the environment and conservation of natural resources than they would be expected to learn in school. This is the 12th year for the event to be held in the county. For instance, the forestry safety information included discussion of chainsaw safety, and, under farm safety, the discussion included the dangers of loose clothing and long hair not under a cap when around power take-off machinery. The number one word of advice given by the Hunter Safety instructor Dean Stucker was to keep the muzzle of any firearm pointed down-range.