2010 Envirothon winners Southern Brew team from Oil City High School           LtoR Brett Stevenson, Ed Culbertson, Jordan Schwab, Jared Schwab, Kyle Lindey

2010 ENVIROTHON

The Venango Conservation District is pleased to announce the winners of the 2010 Venango County Envirothon competition.  The Envirothon competition is an academic event that tests the knowledge of local high school students in the categories of Wildlife, Aquatics, Forestry, Soil Conservation, and a Current Issues topic that changes from year to year.  The Current Issues topic this year was Protection of Groundwater Through Urban, Agricultural, and Environmental Planning.  This year's competition was held at the Nature Lodge of Two Mile Run County Park and hosted eight teams from Oil City, Rocky Grove, and Cranberry High Schools. 

Taking third place this year was the Jumbo Shrimp Scampi team from Rocky Grove High School.  Second place went to the Mud Puppies team from Cranberry High School and first place went to Oil City's Southern Brew team.

BACK PACK ADVENTURE

Partnering with Two Mile Run County Park , and the Northern Allegheny Project, the District is pleased to kick off the Back Pack Adventure Educational Program. This program provides trail walkers with a loaded backpack to find environmental adventures on park trails. Packs are filled with field guides and equipment for environmental exploration. A trail was developed along the lakeside for guided educational walks. Several groups have taken advantage of the guided trail walk already in 2005. We look forward to expanding guided adventures as the program progresses through the years.

SCHOOL FIELD TRIPS

Our home at the Nature Lodge at Two Mile Run County Park has placed us in the perfect position to host watershed education programs. Area schools have been taking advantage of our programs to bring class field trips for a day of watershed education.

Classes visit us here at the park to learn about watersheds. They see demonstrations of macroinvertebrate life in streams, stream table demonstrations and sometimes make a craft to take with them. Students take a trip to the stream and learn to identify macros themselves.

The District staff greatly enjoys student field trips here at the park. We are continually working to expand our programs to accommodate groups that visit us for environmental education.