State puts on Envirothon June 16-18
More than 100 especially eco-conscious Maryland high school students will compete in the Envirothon, a three-day natural resources competition in the coming week at Mount St. Mary's University in Emmitsburg.
These kids are tops in their counties, and the winner from the next round will represent the state at the Canon Envirothon, the largest environmental education competition in North America, in Asheville, N.C., August 2-8.
The event is only open to family and guests of competitors, but I thought it would be nice if the kids got some recognition for a job already well done. And, more importantly, if you have a high school student who wants to get involved, even start a group at his or her school, contact Beth Horsey at the Maryland Department of Agriculture at 410-841-5865 or horseyea@mda.state.md.us.
The event is sponsored by soil conservation districts and the state Soil Conservation Committee.
Comments
Asheville, NC is supposed to be a wonderful place. It's a fitting location for this competition.
Posted by: NotableM | June 12, 2009 7:13 PM
Envirothon is a wonderful program and the soil conservation districts do a great job educating these students about a variety of environmental issues. One of the biggest problems is that the State Department of Natural Resources has discontinued their support of the program. The DNR foresters, wildlife biologists, etc. have been instructed by their heirarchy not to participate. With all the Governor is doing to promote the Partnership for Children in Nature and his "No Child Left Indoors" program, he needs to know that his own agency has pulled out of the Envirothon program. Oh the irony! He may not even be aware of this, but many counties are struggling to find new people to teach the environmental topics with which the DNR staff used to gladly assist. The word from DNR is that this program is not a priority for their dwindling staff. Please do an article on this, I will be glad to provide contact names and details if you are interested.
Posted by: Hunter | June 16, 2009 9:39 AM
A great program. A family member was involved and has since gone onto other environmental studies as a result. Good support in Maryland!
Posted by: BradlyD | June 16, 2009 9:56 AM
The Maryland Envirothon has led to quite afew students going on to work in the environmental field. This type program attracts top students and gets them excited and up to date on environmental issues especially the Bay. Why does DNR not participate any longer? Everyone has faced cutbacks but to not participate in education of the next generation of decision makers seems short sighted. My understanding is that Soil Conservation Districts do all the fundraising and the majority of the logists work at the local and state level so how much time could it really take DNR to help out? DNR is full of some pretty fantastic people to not share them with our best most environmentally active students seems selfish to me.
Posted by: dirtman | June 17, 2009 4:01 PM