Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper
COZAD – The Sidney High School Envirothon team made a run at the Nebraska state championship at Camp Comeca recently, falling by just a few points to champion Concordia High in the end.
Sidney tied Concordia in one of the seven skill areas – aquatics – but Concordia topped all teams in five additional areas to capture its third straight state title. Concordia now prepares for the National Envirothon in Springfield, Mo., in July.
On the way to state, student teams that were comprised of five members, first competed in one of six regional contests state.wide The highest scoring teams earned the opportunity to compete at the state competition.
Sidney led a contingent of three teams from the West Region, which covers the Panhandle. Also competing from the region were teams from Chadron and Creek Valley.
Sidney team members included Skylar Arent, Tanner Nienhueser, Theda Parker, Logan Uhlir and Ryan Birner. Creek Valley team members were Logan Criswell, Noemi Marin, Josh Schievelbein, Allie Blackwelder and Cooper Riley.
In the Evnvirothon competition, five-member teams compete in seven areas of environmental studies: soils, aquatics, forestry, wildlife, range, policy and present on a current environmental issue. This year’s special topic was urban forestry. Test questions weren’t just written, as many required hands-on observations, measurements and calculations.
“The kids love this competition,” said Jim Johnson of Dix, a board member of the Nebraska Association of Resources and chairmen of the Information and Education Committee. “Envirothon is the perfect opportunity for students to see what it may be like to work in natural resources in the future and protect our state’s environment.”
Nebraska Association of Resources Districts is the annual sponsor of the Nebraska Envirothon. The first, second and third overall teams received recognition from the Nebraska Association of Resources Districts. NARD gave $1,500 to the first place winning team, $1,000 to the second place winning team and $500 to the third place winning team.
Each team has to use the money to enhance their high school’s natural resources and agriculture programs. The winning team can also use it to help pay their way to the national competition. Each team member on the winning team was also awarded a $500 scholarship by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln to be used toward a major in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.
Other sponsors and supporters for this year’s Envirothon included FYRA Engineering, Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS), Midwest Laboratories, Nebraska Forest Service, Monsanto Water Utilization Learning Center, Farm Credit Services of America, Platte River Recovery Implementation Program, HDR, Olsson Associates, Nebraska Game and Parks Commission and University of Nebraska-Lincoln School of Natural Resources.
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