UNIVERSITYPARK — Four Butler County students recently completed the Conservation Leadership School program offered at the Stone Valley Recreational Area by Penn State's School of Forest Resources in the College of Agricultural Sciences.

Jesyrae Lawther and Kaylee Giger of Valencia, Travis Tasker of Cabot and Nicholas Pappas of Butler all completed the week-long program last month.

For more than 50 years, the school has offered students between the ages of 15 and 18 an opportunity to learn about natural resource management and conservation, while exploring environmental problems.

The school's classrooms included 7,000 acres of experimental forests and 700 acres of forests, fields and wetlands.

This year's program topics included fisheries conservation, the state's forest heritage, the dangerous effect of acid mine drainage and leadership on conservation issues.