The Upper Niobrara White Natural Resources District (UNWNRD) coordinated the 2023 Western Regional Envirothon Contest earlier this month. The contest was held at the Gordon City Hall with six schools from around the Western Panhandle participating; Alliance, Creek Valley, Hay Springs, Garden County, Gordon-Rushville, and Morrill-Mitchell.
The Envirothon Contest is comprised of seven written exams designed to tests the students’ knowledge in different areas of natural resources. The seven topics are: Aquatics, Forestry, Policy, Range, Soils, Wildlife and a Special Topic (which will change from year to year); this year’s topic was Adapting to a Changing Climate. These tests are taken as a team of five students with 15 minutes to complete each one. Alliance High School FFA took first place and Gordon-Rushville FFA finished in second place.
Alliance has automatically qualified for the State Envirothon Competition on April 26 at the Cedar Point Biological Station at Lake McConaughy in Ogallala, Nebraska. Winners from each of the six regions across Nebraska are invited to the State Envirothon Competition as well as eight wildcard teams that will be selected after each region has completed their local competition on March 7.