May 23, 2021 3 min read

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Teams from Carmichaels Area High School displayed their dominance at the 34th Greene County Envirothon by finishing in first, second and third places at the event held at Hunting Hills in Dilliner.

At the Envirothon, which was held April 22, five-member teams participated in a series of field station tests that focused on five topic areas – soils and land use, forestry, wildlife, aquatic ecology and environmental issues. The theme for the 2021 event was “Water Resources Management: Local Control and Local Solutions.”

Forty high school students from three of Greene County’s five school districts competed in this year’s event.

Carmichaels Team No. 1 won this year’s competition with a score of 401.5 points out of a possible 500. Team members Brooke Watters, Spencer Conard, Faith Willis, Sophia Zalar and Alex Lawrence represented Greene County at the PA Envirothon, which was held earlier this month.

Lisa Snider, director of Greene County Conservation District, said Carmichaels Team No. 1 placed in the top 15 at the state level, which will allow them to advance to the last phase of the competition.

“All final competition material will need to be submitted, and we are hoping to have another Carmichaels win announced on May 27,” Snider said. “We wish the very best of luck to Kevin Willis and the Carmichaels team.”

Each student on the first place team secured a $500 college scholarship funded by donations to Greene County Conservation District.

Carmichaels Team No. 2, consisting of students Gavin Husentis, Daniel Hetrick, Levi Krampy, Brady Jones and Esther Schmelzlen placed second. The team earned 279.5 points.

The third-place team was Carmichaels Team No. 3, which included students Jalane Supler, Elizabeth Hawk, Kammi Collins, Elizabeth Lingenfield and Ethan Mata. The team earned 252 points.

Kevin Willis was advisor to all three Carmichaels teams.

The Greene County Envirothon is organized each year by the Greene County Conservation District and is funded through donations and grants from various businesses, agencies and individuals.

As for the 2021 Greene County Envirothon itself, Snider said the district was happy for all area youths who were able to participate in the in-person event.

“It was great to see the kids again since last year our event had to be canceled,” she said. “They work so hard to understand all the material that was provided, it would have been a shame not to let them participate at an in-person event.

“The Conservation District is pleased to announce that although there were COVID-19 restrictions in place for the day of the event, we managed to hold one of the two in-person events in Pennsylvania,” she continued. “All activities were outdoors and social distancing and CDC guidelines were met.

Carmichaels team members were also busy recently with another environmental project. The team members partnered with the Izaak Walton League to plant trees at State Game Lands 223 April 24, two days after Earth Day and the local Envirothon competition.

Willis said the project’s goal was to establish a wildlife hedgerow across fields formerly in mowed hay production.

“The groups were joined by other volunteers and planted over 125 seedlings with 1/3 each of needled conifer trees, deciduous trees and deciduous shrubs,” he said. “The selection includes flowering and fruiting trees and shrubs which will provide food and cover for pollinators, birds and other wildlife over much of the year.”