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Gillette rancher Kelly Barlow, left, presents cash awards and certificates to the three winners of the Powder River Basin Resource Council's Bill Barlow Memorial Youth in Conservation Award at the recent Wyoming State Science Fair at the University of Wyoming. The winning students are, from left, Torrin Daniels, Recluse; Morgan Holz, Pinedale, and Juliann Terry, Newcastle. Courtesy photo

Students from Newcastle, Pinedale and Recluse are this year's winners of the Powder River Basin Resource Council's Bill Barlow Memorial Youth in Conservation Award, presented at the end of the Wyoming State Science Fair at the University of Wyoming.

Juliann Terry, Morgan Holz and Torrin Daniels each received a cash award and a certificate from the Powder River Basin Resource Council, a Sheridan-based non-profit organization that works for responsible development of Wyoming's resources to preserve the state's natural heritage and quality of rural life.

The group's Youth in Conservation Award is presented in memory of Bill Barlow, a Gillette-area rancher, conservationist and respected community leader who helped found the council in 1973. He died in 2001.

Terry, a ninth-grader at Newcastle High School, won for "The Effects of Thinning Timing on Ips Pinic Infestations," which found that thinning timber within the first 18 weeks of the year can greatly reduce the chances of beetle attacks on remaining trees.

Holz, an eighth-grader at Pinedale Middle School, detailed the impact of human disturbances on mule deer migrations in a project entitled "Keep Moving."

And Daniels, a seventh-grader at Recluse School, detailed the effects of coal-bed methane discharge water on the nutritional value of alfalfa hay in an exhibit he called "Hay-Nous Discovery."

"These students met all of the criteria for the Barlow Award with an exhibit that we are proud to recognize with this important honor," said Kelly Barlow of Gillette, Bill Barlow's daughter-in-law and one of the judges for the award. "Their projects demonstrate the same respect for the land and resources of Wyoming that my father-in-law showed throughout his life."

The three were among about 300 Wyoming students in grades six through 12 competing in the State Science Fair.