The 2009 Regional Michigan Envirothon competition was held on March 13 at the Nature Center. This fun, team based competition focuses on expanding environmental education inside and outside of the classroom for high schoolers. Local resource professionals provide the student teams with resource materials and share their knowledge about subject areas ranging from Agriculture to Energy. Hands-on Outreach Projects are also completed by each team to address environmental issues with in their communities. Teams present these Outreach Projects and test their knowledge of the environment at these regional competitions to qualify for the Michigan Envirothon State Competition. The team receiving the highest score from state competition will represent Michigan at North America's largest high school environmental education competition, the Canon Envirothon.

This year's NW regional Michigan Envirothon was co-sponsored by the Leelanau Conservation District and was a great success! A total of 5 teams made up of 24 students from local area high schools competed on their knowledge of the environment. Resource professionals from all over NW Michigan worked with the students to improve their knowledge of the environment.

Last year we were proud to see a team come out of the GTCD sponsored Regional Envirothon advance past the state competition. A team out of Glenn Lake went on to win the state competition and went out to Flag Staff, Arizona to the Canon Envirothon. All of the teams that competed at this year's event will be moving on to the state competition that will be held at Michigan State University in East Lansing on May 14 and 15. We wish all of the teams luck this year and hope another team from NW Michigan will be heading to the finals!

If you would like to learn more about the Michigan Envirothon and how you and your school can get involved, click here.

Tags: 2009 envirothon, envirothon, Leelanau conservation district