A Brief HistoryPennsylvania Leads the Way
In 1979, the Pennsylvania Soil and Water Conservation Districts created an “Environmental Olympics” competition as an approach aimed to encourage high school students to become interested in natural resource conservation and environmental issues. The Environmental Olympics, later shortened to Enviro-Olympics, quickly gained popularity as a hands-on outdoor competition designed to challenge and test each student’s knowledge of soils, aquatic ecology, forestry, wildlife, and current environmental issues. For nearly a decade, the Pennsylvania Enviro-Olympics program demonstrated its ability to promote environmental literacy and supplement education in grades 9-12. The program quickly grew in size to include participation by 40 conservation district teams at the 1987 Pennsylvania State Enviro-Olympics, providing greater visibility for the program and stimulating the interest of neighboring states. In 1988 the program became known as the Envirothon. That year, teams from Ohio, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania competed at the first National Envirothon hosted and sponsored by the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts. Colorado Joins the EnvirothonColorado Envirothon was established in 2012 by representatives of several agencies and organizations throughout Colorado, including the Colorado Association of Conservation Districts, West Greeley Conservation District, Future Farmers of America, and Colorado State Conservation Board. On May 5, 2013 Colorado held its first state competition.
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2019 Contest WinnersFor a fourth consecutive year, Woodland Park High School’s Environmental Science #1 team took first place honors at the 2019 Colorado Envirothon competition. The event was held April 23-24 at the Arapahoe County Fairgrounds, in Aurora, with seven teams participating from around Colorado to compete in the Colorado Envirothon’s annual natural resource science-based contest. Second place team honors went to Centennial High School from San Luis while Woodland Park High School’s #2 team carried home third place.
Other teams competing were from Blanca, Del Norte, Saguache and Sargent. |
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