A team from Bellefonte Area High School won the the Centre County Conservation District’s 39th annual Envirothon competition on Thursday, April 25, at Bald Eagle State Park.
The Envirothon is an outdoor environmental education competition for local high school students. Five-member teams take a comprehensive exam as they rotate through a circuit of five stations, which for 2024 included aquatic ecology, forestry, soils and land use, wildlife and renewable energy for a sustainable future.
Six high school teams from Bald Eagle, Bellefonte, Penns Valley and Saint Joseph’s participated in the Envirothon.
Bellefonte’s team of Taryn Wagner, Mary Dickman, Logan Rarrick, Alyssa Hopkins and Grady Garrison emerged victorious with a total of 358 points. Faculty advisors for the team are Myken Poorman and Dan Sharp.
The team next will compete in the Pennsylvania Envirothon on May 22, 2024 at Camp Mount Luther in Mifflinburg.
Helping with the Envirothon were representatives from the Pennsylvania Game Commission, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Bureau of Forestry, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and the Centre County Conservation District. Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center also joined the Centre County Envirothon this year, teaching students about native species and showing them how to make seed balls.