Mt. Ararat High School placed first in the state Environthon that took place May 30 in Augusta.

The Maine Association of Conservation Districts awarded the three top-scoring high school Envirothon teams at the event, held at Viles Arboretum in Augusta. The second- and third-place teams were Spruce Mountain High School in Jay and Dirigo High School in Dixfield, respectively. Eleven teams from around the state competed at this event.

Envirothon, Maine’s largest high school environmental education program, is an international program representing more than 500,000 high school students in the United States and Canada. Usually the firstplace team represents Maine in the National North American Envirothon, but due to some organizational changes, there will not be a national event this year. Mt. Ararat, as the winning team, was awarded a three-day rafting and outdoor adventure, donated in part by Adventure Bound from Caratunk.

The major objective of the Maine Envirothon, an educational tool capable of supplementing environmental education both inside and outside the classroom, is to provide opportunities for high school students or organized groups of high school-aged students to acquire and increase their outdoor skills and scientific knowledge about Maine’s natural resources so that they can make informed, educated decisions about the environment. It provides students with reference materials, workshops, and hands-on, outdoor, reallife experiences in five areas including forestry, wildlife, soils, aquatics, and a current issue — this year being sustainable agriculture/ locally grown.

Other high schools competing in the 2014 State Envirothon finals included: Bonny Eagle, Brunswick, Bucksport, Hampden, Hodgdon, Maine School of Science and Math, Washington Academy and Wisdom. These teams represented the top scorers from four regional competitions that took place around the state earlier in May. Sixty-one teams representing 32 high schools participated statewide in the regional competitions.

For more information about Envirothon, visit maineenv i rothon.org, www.envirothon.org or the Maine Envirothon Facebook page.

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