By Kylen Armstrong
Upper Niobrara White Natural Resources District

The Upper Niobrara White Natural Resources District (UNWNRD) coordinated the 2019 Western Regional Envirothon Contest on Feb. 13.  The contest was held at the Gordon City Hall with five schools from around the panhandle participating: Crawford, Creek Valley, Garden County, Gordon-Rushville and Sidney.

The Envirothon Contest is a series of timed, written tests pertaining to seven environmental topics.  The seven topics include: Aquatics, Forestry, Policy, Range, Soils, Wildlife and a Special Topic, that changes each year; this year’s topic was Agriculture and the Environment.  Each test is proctored with 15 minutes allowed per test. Sidney High School’s team scored highest with Creek Valley finishing second. Sidney’s team members are: Ashlyn Roelle, Ashlyn Sutton, Hannah Kennedy, Seth Studnicka and Travis Graham.  Creek Valley’s team members are: Cooper Reichman, Eli Schmid, Nolan Ortgies and Tucker Graeff.

 

Sidney High School will have the opportunity to compete at the state level on April 24, 2019, and Creek Valley will have the opportunity to enter the competition as a wildcard. Winners from the state competition will go on to the National NCF Envirothon that will be held in Raleigh, North Carolina this coming July.  “We would love to see more participation, in the future, from other local schools throughout the panhandle,” stated Tricia Goes, Conservation Programs Assistant for UNWNRD. This is especially important in the next year as Nebraska was selected to host the 2020 National NCF Envirothon in Lincoln, Nebraska. Your local NRD’s across the state will help to organize this event in the Summer of 2020.