Carmichaels sweeps Envirothon competition
WIND RIDGE – Fifty-nine high school students from Greene County’s five school districts competed in the 26th annual Greene County Envirothon May 1 at Ryerson Station State Park in Wind Ridge. Teams of five students tested their environmental knowledge in the areas of soils, forestry, wildlife, aquatics and the 2013 current issue, grazing lands and pasture management.
Carmichaels Team No. 1 won this year’s competition with a score of 390 points out of a possible 500 points. Team members Floretta Chambers, Ashley Dotson, Doug Kowalewski, Mackenzie Metcalf and Philip Mikalik and team adviser Kevin Willis will represent Greene County at the state Envirothon, which is scheduled for May 21-22 at Juniata College in Huntingdon County.
Winning second place was the Carmichaels team consisting of Tyler Crago, Taylor Dodson, Michael Donaldson, Hannah Hughes and Parker Woodring. The third-place team also was from Carmichaels and included Allie Christopher, Logan Decker, Molly Roberts, Connor Spangler and Mia Virgili.
The Greene County Envirothon is organized each year by the Greene County Conservation District and is funded through a grant from the Community Foundation of Greene County’s Pennsylvania Education Improvement Tax Credit program through Consol Energy. Each student on the winning team secured a $500 college scholarship funded by Alpha Natural Resources.
In addition to the continued financial support of Community Foundation of Greene County, Consol Energy and Alpha Natural Resources, other partners that made the event successful include Greene County commissioners; Greene County Department of Economic Development; Chuck Shrump and Kevin Paul, U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service; Russ Gibbs, state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Bureau of Forestry; Alan Johnson and staff, Ryerson Station State Park; DCNR Bureau of State Parks; Abbey Owoc and Tyler Brown, state Department of Environmental Protection; Joe Stefko, Brandon Bonin and Mike Greiner, state Game Commission; Walt Bumgarner, Penn State Cooperative Extension; Wallace and Pancher Inc.; and Michelle Anderson, Alpha Natural Resources.
For more information on the Greene County Envirothon, call the Greene County Conservation District at 724-852-5278.