How does the Envirothon work?

The heart and soul and most of the intense natural resource learning of the Envirothon begins in each conservation district (district and county boundaries are usually the same.) Conservation districts' educational coordinators or district managers identify teachers/advisors in both public and private high schools, in 4-H or other environmental clubs who want to work with the program. The teachers/advisors may be science or social studies' teachers, school administrators, or club leaders who have an interest in environmental affairs and young people.

The district educational coordinator or district manager also identifies and works with local natural resource people, such as foresters, soils specialists, wildlife experts, fisheries people, and others, to provide field days, nature trips, environmental events, provide films, and resource materials to the participating high schools. This environmental education takes place throughout the school year.

Conservation districts establish Envirothon resource committees (as needed) consisting of local environmental, recreational, scientific people, interested civic groups and citizens to oversee quality natural resource training and the development of a local district-level competition in March or early April of each year.

Each conservation district may send up to 3 teams of five students to represent the district. The teams travel to the state Envirothon, usually held in mid-April, where they challenge their knowledge in a problem-solving competition that involves "hands on" involvement with natural resource information. The state competition takes two days and involves an oral presentation in which a solution to an environmental problem in the current topic is presented and field station tests on each topic.

Each state winning team from the state Envirothon travels to the national Envirothon where they serve as representatives from their state. The national Envirothon is a five-day event. In addition to the competition, they hold tours, campfires, night hikes, and other environmentally related activities.