The Rensselaer County Soil & Water Conservation District is reaching out to all high schools within Rensselaer County!  Each year our District partners with several counties in the Capital Region to host a youth academic competition, known as the “Envirothon”.  This is a 1-day academic competition including six areas of knowledge: Aquatics, Forestry, Soils, Wildlife, a current environmental issue, and an oral presentation.  Each school, public or private, within the County can have 1-3 High School teams consisting of 4 to 5 students. These teams can be made up of students from grades 9 through 12.  Grades 7 and 8 may participate as a team but are not eligible to go on to the State Envirothon.

 

First, these teams compete at the Regional Envirothon, and the highest scoring team from each county will move on to represent their County at the State level.  Check out the NYS Envirothon at www.nysenvirothon.org.  Our Regional competition includes teams from Albany, Montgomery, Schenectady, Schoharie, and Rensselaer Counties.  This Regional competition is held every spring (date noted above). There is also a chance for your team to qualify in competing at the National Envirothon (https://envirothon.org/), which is known as North America’s largest high school environmental ed competition!  

You don’t necessarily have to be a science teacher to bring a team, some schools have their gym teachers, FFA leaders, teachers of after school environmental programs or any adult volunteer. With that, please share this academic opportunity with your students and teachers!  Our District would be thrilled to have your school enroll a team or two!  

 

The photo below depicts the Hoosick Falls Envirothon Team, who is the winning team of the 2024 Capital Region Envirothon for Rensselaer County! 

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Contact Laura Bornt, Rensselaer County Envirothon Representative at:

Laura.Bornt.renscoswcd@gmail.com

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Questions? Call the Soil & Water Conservation District at 518-271-1740 ex.3