Highlands has been home to an Envirothon team for the past 17 years. Envirothon is an international competition. There are five main topics for the five team members to each specialize in: forestry, soils, wildlife, aquatic ecology, and current environmental issues. The competitions are all outdoors and there are stations for each of the topics.
Envirothon programs aim to excite students to learn about the natural environment, as well as to give them knowledge and skills to apply the basic principles and practices of resource management and ecology to help solve complex environmental issues.
Senior Sophia Scherrer, a member of the Environthon team, explained: “It’s basically an environmental competition. We do study measuring trees and identifying trees, identifying macroinvertebrates in the stream and we’re just quizzed on a lot of knowledge about Kentucky’s native wildlife.”
Before the regional competition, the Envirothon team meets in flex time and has training days to prepare for the competition. They will have three meetings before the state competition.
At this year’s regional contest, Highlands brought four groups, three of which qualified for the state competition. Only one of the teams had returning members which makes this feat even more impressive.
Sheer was also asked about how she thought regionals went for the team. She expressed:
“We were really happy. Having three teams qualify was really good especially because only one of those teams had returning members; the other two teams were entirely new members.”
Jude Borden, a freshman, competed for the Highlands Envirothon team for the first time this year. He explained his content for the season: “Three of our four teams qualified for state, but one of ours did not, so pretty good.”
Chemistry teacher Del Ehemann runs the Envirothon team. She expressed her excitement for this year’s team: “They could do it, man. We have a group, I’m not saying everybody, but we have a group. Sophia Scherrer, Dominic Mills, Max Ingle, Owen Borden, and Jude Eckerle. Those people have been doing it I think since they were sophomores and they know their stuff.”
One team was third in the region. The group was only eight and a half points behind the leaders this year, the closest they have ever been. South Warren High School won the region followed by Gatten B in second place.
The State competition will be held on May 15th and 16th, at the 4H camp in Carlisle, Kentucky. The top team in the state will have the opportunity to go to nationals in New York. Nationals will start on July 28 and end on August 3, 2024.
In 17 years of Highlands having an Envirothon team, no group has gotten as close to winning State as Sophia Scherrer, Dominic Mills, Max Ingle, Owen Borden, and Jude Eckerle. The group has put in the work for the past three years to get to the point where they are now. The team has done amazing this year and hopefully will continue that going into the state competition.