Envirothon

Volusia County Envirothon

The Florida Envirothon is an outdoor, hands-on competition and education program for high school students that promotes good stewardship of the land, while giving students an awareness of environmental issues and human impacts. At Florida Envirothon competitions, which are held throughout the state, teams of five students are tested on five environmental areas (listed below) and compete for the highest cumulative score in the following areas:

1. Aquatics — water ecology, water chemistry, water quality and aquatic life

2. Forestry — tree identification, tree ecology, insects and disease and timber management

3. Soils — classification, formation, soil properties, profiles and site suitability

4. Wildlife — habitat, identification, food, disease and management

5. Current Environmental Issues — annually selected topics such as air resources, nonnative invasive plants, or other current issues

Volusia County’s Envirothon was held on January 26, 2008 at Spruce Creek Park in Port Orange. A team from Spruce Creek and a team from Pine Ridge High Schools registered for the competition.

The Pine Ridge High School Envirothon Team won the competition and will go on to compete at the State Envirothon at Myakka State Park in Sarasota.

These experts volunteered their time for the 2008 Envirothon. L to R they are Brian Scheick (Wildlife), Susanne Inman (Current Environmental Issue), George Johnson (Soils), Kraig Jones (Forestry), and Tom Carey (Aquatics).

The 2009 Envirothon will once again be in January. For more information please contact Tom Carey, Volusia County Environmental Management.

Envirothon Links:

Florida Envirothon: http://www.sjrwmd.com/education/resources.html#enviro

National Envirothon: http://www.envirothon.org/