Buncombe County Teams Sweep at Regional Envirothon

Buncombe County is home to the Area 1 Regional Envirothon winners! Congratulations to the top 3 teams all from Buncombe County: Lab Rats, Ambystoma mexicanum, and the Pileated Woodpeckers.

The NC Envirothon is an exciting natural resource education program designed to challenge students in an interactive, outdoor competition where middle and high school teams (consisting of 3-5 students) are tested in areas of Wildlife, Forestry, Aquatic Ecology, Soils, and Land Use and Current Environmental Issues.  Every year the teams compete in local, regional, and state competitions for the opportunity to compete at the National Envirothon.

On March 30th, five teams from Nesbitt Discovery Academy High School competed in the Area 1 Envirothon. The Area 1 competition prepares students to compete at the state level. When the scores for the competition were tallied, all Buncombe County teams placed in the top seven and will be competing at the State Envirothon in April.

The Envirothon is the largest environmental science competition in North America. The students compete in their knowledge of natural resource management, identification and critical thinking skills relating to environmental concerns. It is a year-long curriculum combining in-class studies with outdoor training, emphasizing teamwork and higher order thinking skills such as analysis and interpretation. The Envirothon helps develop environmentally aware citizens who are able to assume future leadership roles. The Envirothon program is offered to both Middle and High School students. For more information on how to participate in local, regional, and state Envirothon, please visit www.ncenvirothon.org or contact Buncombe Soil and Water Conservation District at 828-250-4787.

The following students are recognized for their hard work and dedication to environmental stewardship: 

Lab Rats: Catie Banks, Zane Moore, Sadie Moore, Piper Sales, Sydney Selmensberger.

Ambystoma mexicanum: Chloe Pearson, Lize Porras, Violet Florian, Eli Troop, Mateo Craven.

Pileated Woodpeckers: Charlie Marsh, Eli Haynes, Luke Moran.