A Fort Defiance High School team and a Shelburne Middle School team earned first place in the Headwaters Soil & Water Conservation District Local Envirothon.
Fort Defiance will represent local schools at the regional level of Envirothon 2025 on April 29 near Raphine against 11 other teams, but middle school students do not compete at the regional or state levels. The Virginia competition will be held in May and an international competition in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in July.
Second place for high school went to Riverheads High and third place to Waynesboro High on Wednesday. In Thursday’s middle school-level competition at Grand Caverns Park, second place was earned by Roanoke’s The Community School and third place by Stuarts Draft Middle.
“I think it was a lot of fun to study the topics,” said Bella Payne of The Community School about her first year at Envirothon. She said she enjoyed the competitive spirit of her fellow students.
Each student within a team prepares for Envirothon with a focus on one topic, but also prepares to be well rounded enough to help teammates with all five categories.
Brenner Celli of The Community School attended his second Envirothon.
“It’s been really awesome to learn about the ecosystem,” he said.
Abigail Whittaker of The Community School said she thinks it’s cool that Virginia offers the opportunity for high school and middle school students to learn about the environment.
“I think it’s a really interesting thing that you get to do this at such a young age,” Abigail said.
She added that the students and volunteers get to come together as a community and Envirothon also looks good on student resumes.
“It’s a competitive thing to be at Envirothon. You have to agree on something,” Abigail said of working as teams.
Simone Martin of The Community School is originally from Florida and Envirothon was like nothing she has experienced.
“I’ve always loved being outdoors and hiking,” Simone said. Also in Girl Scouts, she was interested in Envirothon for the opportunities it would provide to learn about the outdoors and nature.
According to Rich Wood, Education & Outreach Coordinator for Headwaters Soil & Water Conservation District, nine teams competed this year, the most the local competition has hosted. Fifty-two students participated from five schools. Each team had five members with two alternates.
Students were scored at five stations: aquatics, environmental issue, forestry, soils and wildlife. The environmental issue changes every year for relevancy and 2025’s issue was “Roots and Resiliency: Fostering Forest Stewardship in a Canopy of Change.”
“That’s also the core of [Wednesday’s] presentation for the high school,” Wood said of the environmental issue.
In fall 2024, high school teams knew the environmental issue question and began to prepare presentations on how the Monacan Tribe could manage climate change.
Shelburne Middle School Science teacher Kirsten Evans said she formed her team of five students in late December or early January. Wood visited the class with lessons in each category.
“And they studied a lot on their own,” she said. They also attended a training session at Bridgewater College.
When recruiting students for her second Envirothon team, Evans said she looked for students with the ability to communicate well, who are team players and who are self starters.
“I think that [Envirothon] allows the students to make a lot of connections through their curriculum in middle school,” Evans said.
In 6th grade, students learn about water shed and healthy waters, which connects with Envirothon‘s environmental issue. In 7th grade, they learn about Life Sciences such as cells and biology, which connects with forestry and identifying plants, wildlife and aquatics in Envirothon.
“It’s a great way for students to find similar passions. They can connect with their love for the environment,” Evans said.
Since the Virginia Envirothon Academic Competition‘s establishment in 1995, a team from Fort Defiance High School has placed first at the state level eight times.
The top three teams from Virginia‘s six Area Envirothons will compete in the Dominion Energy Virginia State Envirothon May 18 and 19 at the University of Mary Washington.
Related stories:
Three Augusta County high school teams will compete in area Envirothon
Envirothon: Local middle, high school students compete in five outdoor categories of skill
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Rebecca Barnabi
