EPA Grant Gives Long Island High School Students a Green Team Experience

Let the games begin! Long Island high school students have trained long and hard for the Regional Envirothon, a competition over environmental prowess supported by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). At today’s opening event, EPA Regional Administrator Alan J. Steinberg delivered a pep talk to the students before the competition at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration.

“You are the future caretakers of the environment and today you will demonstrate your environmental knowledge and skills,” EPA Regional Administrator, Alan J. Steinberg told the students. “While the excitement of the competition and possible victory are foremost today, the long-term purpose of the Envirothon is to make environmental stewardship part of your college and work lives. The future of the environment is in your hands.

Twenty-three teams from seven high schools in Nassau County and six in Suffolk were registered as participants. The 18th century colonial village restoration provided an intriguing contrast to the efforts of the 115 participating students as they fielded questions and addressed problems about today’s environment and the challenges of energy production and consumption in the 21st century.

The Long Island Regional Envirothon, an environmental education foundation affiliated with the Nassau and Suffolk County Soil and Water Conservation Districts, received an $8,800 environmental education grant from EPA to encourage young people to pursue environmental studies and careers. Students participating in this year’s Envirothon studied aquatics, forestry, soils, wildlife and alternate/renewable energy to prepare for a series of questions that demonstrate their problem solving skills. Participating schools each entered one or two teams of three to five members. The teams are also competing today for college scholarship funds, in addition to the prizes awarded for the competition itself. The team with the highest score will compete in the New York State Envirothon in May.