Manatee High School places first in Envirothon competition

Studying the Envirothon score board. (provided photo)

At the annual Manasota Regional Envirothon on Feb. 6, 90 students representing seven Manatee and Sarasota county high schools competed at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey,  reports Gail Cameron Somodi,  Soil Conservation supervisor, Manatee Agriculture and Extension Service Division.

 The Envirothon is an outdoor environmental team competition for high school students, testing their knowledge of aquatics, forestry, soils, wildlife, and a current topic: "Sustainable Local Agriculture/Locally Grown."

Placing first for Manatee County was ‘Amoeba Alert’ from Manatee High School. Two more Manatee High School teams, ‘The Feds’ and ‘Zaggin’, placed second and third respectively.

The ‘Tree Thuggers’ from Sarasota High School placed first for Sarasota County. Suncoast Polytechnical High School ‘Renegades Orange’ placed second, and the ‘Kale Krew’ from Sarasota High School finished third.

First place teams from each county are eligible to compete in the State Envirothon to be held at the Beau Turner Youth Conservation Center in Lamont, Fla., in May.

Top teams from each state will compete in the Canon North American Envirothon, during the summer at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga.

Manatee River Soil and Water Conservation District along with Sarasota Soil and Water Conservation District sponsor the competition. Lunch was  donated by the Manatee Fish and Game Association and prepared by the Florida Forest Service.

The Mosaic Company and Sarasota County Farm Bureau sponsored the event T-shirts and Keep Manatee Beautiful sponsored the awards for Manatee County students.

Also involved were Manatee County Community Services Department/Agriculture and Extension Service Division, Sarasota County Water Quality Planning, Florida Forest Service, USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service, Oscar Scherer State Park volunteers, and UF/IFAS Sarasota County
Extension Service.

Manatee first place team. (provided photo)

Sarasota first-place team. (provided photo)

Team takes soils test. (provided photo)