At the annual Manasota Regional Envirothon about 125 students, representing seven Manatee and Sarasota county high schools, competed at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey. The Envirothon is an outdoor environmental team competition for high school students, testing their knowledge of aquatics, forestry, soils, wildlife, and this year’s current topic ‘Agriculture and the Environment: Knowledge & Technology to Feed the World.’
Placing first for Manatee County was team ‘Green is the New Black’ from Manatee High School. Southeast High School’s team ‘Senior Seminoles for Science’ placed second. In third place was team ‘Unbe-leaf-able’ from Manatee High School.
Sarasota High School captured the top three spots for Sarasota County, with team ‘The Lettuce League’ from Sarasota High School placing first for Sarasota County. Teams ‘Tree Thuggers’ and the ‘Mighty Morphing Flower Arrangers’ placed 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
First place teams from each county are eligible to compete in the State Envirothon to held at the UF/IFAS North Florida Research and Education Center in Live Oak, Florida in April. Other schools in attendance were from Manatee Palmetto High School and from Sarasota Out-of-Door Academy, Suncoast Polytechnical High School and Venice High School.
Top teams from each state will compete in the North American Envirothon during the summer at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Manatee River Soil and Water Conservation District along with Sarasota Soil and Water Conservation District sponsor the annual competition. Lunch was donated by the Manatee Fish and Game Association and prepared by the Florida Forest Service. Sarasota County Farm Bureau and the Mosaic Company sponsored the event t-shirts. Keep Manatee Beautiful and Keep Sarasota County Beautiful sponsored the awards.
Manatee County Parks and Natural Resources Department, UF/IFAS Manatee County Extension, Florida Forest Service, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, UF/IFAS Sarasota County Extension and Sustainability, and Oscar Scherer State Park volunteers also participated.
For questions or to be included in next year’s event contact Gail Somodi gail.somodi@fl.nacdnet.net, (941) 907-0011
0
