Jul 26, 2011 2 min read

Under a bright blue sky at Ryerson Station State Park, the 24th annual Greene County Envirothon was held on May 5.

Twelve high school teams from all five Greene County school districts attended this contest to test their environmental knowledge in five subject areas: Soils, forestry, wildlife, aquatics and the 2011 special topic, “Salt and Fresh Water Estuaries.” A variety of hands-on testing methods are used with only 35 minutes allowed at each station.

Carmichaels Team #1 won this year’s competition with a score of 443 points out of 500 points total. The team members are: Christine Broadwater, Luke Cumpston, Robert Kowalewski, Samantha May, Kasey Osborne, and their advisor, Kevin Willis. This team competed at the State Envirothon at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pa., and Shikellamy State Park in Sunbury, Pa.

?This event is organized each year by the Greene County Conservation District and was funded through a grant from the Community Foundation of Greene County’s Pennsylvania Education Improvement Tax Credit (EITC) Program. Each student on the winning team secures a $500 college scholarship which was funded by Alpha Natural Resources.

Representatives of the Conservation District said they are “very grateful” for the continued financial support of the Community Foundation and Alpha Natural Resources. Other partnering agencies that made this event successful were: Greene County Commissioners Pam Snyder, Archie Trader and Chuck Morris; Greene County Department of Economic Development; Susan Funka-Petery and Kimberlee Moninger, USDA, Natural Resources Conservation Service; Robert McBride, DCNR Bureau of Forestry; Alan Johnson and staff, Ryerson Station State Park, DCNR, Bureau of State Parks; Eric Davis, PA Fish and Boat Commission; Chuck Kubasik, PA Department of Environmental Protection; Randy Crago and Joe Stefko, PA Game Commission; Wallace and Pancher Inc.; and Michelle Anderson, Alpha Natural Resources.