Laurel team wins Conservation's Envirothon
May 8—A team comprised of Laurel High School students won first place at this year's Lawrence County Envirothon, a countywide competition sponsored by the Lawrence County Conservation District.
The event took place Tuesday at Shenango Park in Shenango Township, where 13 teams of 58 high school students representing Laurel, Wilmington Area and Union Area school districts competed, demonstrating their knowledge about five areas of outdoor science.
The four- and five-member teams participated in a series of field station tests that focused on five topics — soils and land use, forestry, wildlife, aquatic ecology and current environmental issues. The theme for the event was "Adapting to a Changing Climate."
The winning team, Laurel Team D&D Team, was comprised of Dillon Dugan, Cheyenne Holben, Matthew Houk, Maelee Hill and Henry Perdue with team advisors Laura Palmer and Cynthia Nicklas.
The team advanced to represent the county at the Pennsylvania Envirothon state competition.
The team was awarded an Eagle Trophy along with its paid registration fee of $200 to the state Envirothon. The Lawrence County Conservation District is sponsoring the team.
The 2023 PA Envirothon will be May 24 at Camp Mt. Luther in Mifflinburg.
The second-place team, also from Laurel, was Team DeWalt. Its members were Corey Wilson, Cody Wagner, Caleb Miller and Joey Duncan.
The third-place team was the Wilmington Area FFA Environerds, which included Evin Richardson, Tommy Hetzer, Faith Jones, Logan King, with advisors Joanna McKelvey and Dylan Clark.
The annual Lawrence County Envirothon is organized by the conservation district and is funded through its annual tree seedling sale and sponsorship program.
The 2023 contributing sponsors were J.B. Mill & Fabricating Inc., Lawrence County Sportsmen's Association, Central Heating & Plumbing, Tervo Masonry LLC, Riardo's Bar & Grill, North Memorial Animal Hospital, Five Fillies Farm LLC, Michael Joseph State Farm Agency and Preston Motors.
Second- and third-place teams also received trophies.
all participants received T-shirts, sunglasses and district logo stickers.
In addition to the continued financial support of sponsors, other partners involved in the Envirothon were Susannah Harris, Regional Department of Environmental Protection representative; Sydney White, U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Resource Conservation Services; Dave Cole, Jake Whitehead and Miles Valchar of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Bureau of Forestry; Tim Haas, officer of the state Fish and Boat Commission; Officers Byron Gibbs, Taylor Gunderson and Jacob Olexsak of the state Game Commission; and Jerry Zona and Megan Gahring of the Lawrence/Mercer Recycling and Solid Waste Department.
More information about the annual Envirothon is available by contacting Jeannie Shay, conservation district watershed specialist/county Envirothon coordinator at jshay@lawrencecd.org or (724) 656-2167.
