AUGUSTA - The Spruce Mountain Envirothon Program had a busy two days on May 31 and June 1.
The three teams from Spruce Mountain took 1st, 2nd, and 5th at the Maine Envirothon State Championship on Friday, then spent most of Saturday on the roads and in the woods conducting a community watershed survey with a group of local volunteers and community officials. Envirothon Advisor Rob Taylor said, “It was a very hectic but rewarding 48 hours. This is such a great group of kids to work with!”
The Envirothon State Finals were held at the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine (SAM) Nature Center in Augusta, a fairly new facility that is being developed by SAM. Teams competed near a trout pond, surrounded by woods and fields of clover that support local deer and wildlife populations, with a pair of osprey circling overhead tending to their brood in a huge nest on a power pole.
“It was a beautiful day on a great site for the competition,” said Taylor.
Envirothon is a competition involving outdoor field tests Aquatic Ecology, Soils, Forestry, Wildlife, and this year’s Current Issue, Agricultural Technology. Each area is scored on a 100-point scale, for a total of 500 points. The tests are very challenging. Last summer at the National Conservation Foundation Envirothon in Idaho, team member Orion Schwab remarked, “I think the tests in Maine were harder than the ones we had in Idaho.” This year’s Maine Envirothon was equally challenging.
Spruce Mountain Team 1 won the event with a score of 416.09. The all-senior Spruce Mountain Team 1 qualified for the National Conservation Foundation Envirothon at North Carolina State University from July 28 - August 2. Spruce Mountain Team 2 took second with a score of 405.57. Belfast H.S. Team 1 took third place with a score of 391.23.
Maine State Envirothon Champions Spruce Mountain Team 1: Advisor Rob Taylor, Hunter Quirrion, Gabby Beaudoin, Natalie Luce, Orion Schwab, John Brenner.