NEBRASKA ENVIROTHON NATURAL RESOURCES COMPETITION ANNOUNCES WINNING TEAM HEADED TO COMPETE IN CANADA!

“Envirothon goes beyond the classroom in giving students natural resources life skills.”

Lincoln, NE – The 2016 Nebraska Envirothon State Championship team hails from Concordia High School. Concordia Team 1 will now prepare for the National Envirothon in Ontario, Canada in July. This is Concordia High School’s fourth straight win at the state competition. The state contest was held at Steinhart Lodge at the Lied Lodge and Conference Center in Nebraska City, NE on Wednesday, April 27, 2016. Student teams, consisting of five members, first competed in a regional contest. They are held across the state.  The highest scoring teams had the opportunity to compete at the state competition.

The 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, the students prepared presentations on invasive species.  Test questions are not only written, but many require hands-on observations, measurements and calculations.

“The students have a blast at the competition,” said Jim Johnson, Board Member of the Nebraska Association of Resources and Chair of the Information and Education Committee. “They put in a lot of hours preparing for the competition and many, find out they love natural resources so much, they then consider going into it as a career.

Members of the first place team from Concordia High School are Joe Manning, Michael Backer, Kat Mallott, Grace Trembath, Derek Robbins and the Alternate is Blake Hawkins.  Their coach is Mike Ellis, a teacher at Concordia High School. The State Runner-up team was from Sidney, Nebraska. Pender High School took third place. This year there were 14 schools that competed at the state competition.  High schools that participated this year include Concordia High School in Omaha, Sidney High School in Sidney, Millard South High School in Millard, Milford High School in Milford, Southern Valley High School in Oxford, Norris High School in Firth, Ord High School in Ord, Pender High School in Pender, West Holt High School in Atkinson, Sumner-Eddyville-Miller (SEM) in Sumner, Arapahoe High School in Arapahoe, and St. Paul High School in St. Paul.

Nebraska Association of Resources Districts (NARD) is the annual sponsor of the Nebraska Envirothon. The first, second, and third overall placing 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 towards a major in the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources.

Other sponsors and supporters for this year’s Envirothon include Smithfield Foods, 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.

Find out more about how you can get involved in the Nebraska Envirothon by going to www.nrdnet.org.

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For Immediate Release

April 29, 2016

 Contact: Erika Hill, Public Relations Director

Phone: (402) 471-7672 Cell: (402) 570-2283

Email: ehill [at] nrdnet.org

The Nebraska Association of Resources Districts (NARD), the trade association for Nebraska's 23 natural resources districts, works with individual NRDs to protect lives, protect property, and protect the future of Nebraska’s natural resources. These districts are unique to Nebraska. NRD’s are local government entities with broad responsibilities to protect our natural resources. Major Nebraska river basins form the boundaries of the 23 NRDs, enabling districts to respond best to local conservation and resource management needs. To learn more about Nebraska’s NRDs visit www.nrdnet.org. Or you can head to the Natural Resources Districts’ Facebook page at www.facebook.com or follow NARD’s Twitter page at www.twitter.com @nebnrd. NARD is located at 601 S. 12th St. Suite 201, Lincoln, Nebraska  68508.  Email NARD at nard [at] nrdnet.org or call NARD at (402) 471-7670.