Three Augusta County high school teams will compete in area Envirothon

Students from four Augusta County high schools competed in the 2023 local Envirothon yesterday at Natural Chimneys.

Fort Defiance High School’s team placed first, followed by Stuarts Draft High School and Riverheads High School. All three teams will compete against students from five other school districts in the Area 1 Envirothon on April 27 at Grand Caverns Park in Grottoes.

Wilson Memorial High School also had a team which competed in yesterday’s competition.

Teams contained five students who competed in five areas: Aquatics, Soil and Land Use, Wildlife, Forestry and a Current Environmental Issue. This year’s environmental issue was “Adapting to Climate Change,” for which each team presented a 20-minute oral presentation to a panel of judges.

“Just to prove people wrong. This is our first year so a lot of people have said we’re not going to do well,” said Kaylee Davis, 18, of Riverheads High School’s team’s goal for the competition.

All five students on the team were friends before Envirothon and decided to compete together.

“We got a good group of people,” Kaitlyn Fitzgerald, 16, said of the team.

After testing at the Wildlife station where the team identified animal bones and furs, Kaitlyn said she thought it was easy, and the team was ready for the other four tests.

“We’re very confident,” Kaitlyn said.

Rich Wood, Headwaters Soil & Water Conservation District Education and Outreach Coordinator, visited each of the schools prior to competition this year and got to know each team. Students who participate in Envirothon are usually interested in pursuing careers in science.

“They’ve been preparing pretty hard,” he said. Teams began preparing in the fall.

The teams struggled with some of the topics, but, Wood said, he was impressed with what he saw and heard from the teams before yesterday’s competition. Each team was excited and nervous about competing.

Wood was involved with Envirothon in Pennsylvania for 27 years before coming to Virginia two years ago.

Part of each team’s scoring in the competition is team involvement, which is especially measured during the oral presentation.

“We feel at the Envirothon that pubic speaking is very important,” Wood said.

The top three teams who place on April 27 at the area district competition will compete at the state level.