Decorah Envirothon teams excel at State

The Painted Turtles with the DHS Envirothon advisor: L-R: Larry Berland, Anna Spencer, Sylvia Betteridge, Brenna Betts, Josephine Berlage,and Shania Kelly

Two teams from Decorah recently competed in the state Envirothon contest held at Springbrook State Park near Guthrie Center.  The Decorah teams were two of fifteen teams from across Iowa that had finished with the highest scores following regional competition held earlier.  

The Decorah Painted Turtles finished first in the oral speech category and fourth overall at the state meet.  Their fifteen minute speech concerned itself with Soil and Water Conservation practices near the Mississippi River in Muscatine county here in Iowa. Means by which nitrate and phosphate along with soil could be removed from water entering the Mississippi watershed were discussed during the speech.  Team members were Josephine Berlage, Sylvia Betteridge, Brenna Betts, Shania Kelly, and Anna Spencer.

The second Decorah team, MHEMO, finished 10th overall in their first time at the state contest.  Team members are Owen Burgdorf-Hibbs, Matthew Chen, Evie Holyoake, Meg Sessions, and Helen Weis.

The teams would like to extend a special thank you to Barbara Schroeder, John Kraus, and the Winneshiek County Conservation Board for their generous support and assistance throughout the year.

The Envirothon is a team competition for high school students testing their knowledge of natural resources. In the field and classroom, teams of five students are challenged to use their knowledge and critical thinking skills to conduct hands-on investigations, solve real-life scenarios and answer written questions covering five categories: Aquatics, Forestry, Soils, Wildlife and Current Environmental Issues.

The Iowa Envirothon is sponsored by Conservation Districts of Iowa, with generous support from IDALS-DSCWQ, Griggs Environmental Strategies, Iowa Department of Natural Resources, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, Iowa FFA Association, Iowa Pork Producers Association, Iowa Soil and Water Conservation Society, Iowa Soybean Association, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Smithfield Foods, Springbrook State Park, Winneshiek SWCD, Many Soil and Water Conservation Districts, Barb Schroeder, Dallas SWCD, Denise Forret, Eldon Weber, Jake Hansen, Jim Gillespie, Judie Krebsbach, Pat Schlarbaum, Robert Lynch and Wayne Petersen.

Team advisor is Larry Berland.

MHEMO Team L-R: Meg Sessions, Owen Burgdorf-Hibbs, Matthew Chen, Evie Holyoake, and Helen Weis

MHEMO Testing Water Using a TurbidityTube. Pictured L-R: Meg Sessions, Matthew Chen, Evie Holyoake, Owen Burgdorf-Hibbs, and Helen Weis

The Painted Turtles collaborate on the Aquatics test. L-R: Brenna Betts, Shania Kelly, Anna Spencer, Sylvia Betteridge, and Josephine Berlage