JAY — Students from Spruce Mountain High School’s veteran team won the 2023 Maine Envirothon Competition at Viles Arboretum in Augusta on June 7th.
The win is the team’s third straight state championship, continuing the success of former school teams winning the event. The current winning team will represent Maine for the third consecutive year at the National Conservation Foundation International Envirothon, to be held this year at Mount Allison University in Tantramar, New Brunswick, Canada, the last week of July.
Envirothon is the world’s largest high school environmental science competition and features field tests in forestry, soil science, aquatic ecology, wildlife management, and an annual current issue, which for 2023 is “Adapting to a Changing Climate.”
To help win this year’s Maine Envirothon, the team presented innovative solutions to climate change while addressing a problem scenario involving forest and agricultural management.
Regional competitions are put on by county soil and water conservation districts. Maine State Envirothon is organized by Maine Association of Conservation Districts.
“The team really put in the hours of practice, late evenings and Sundays, and it paid off,” Spruce Mountain Envirothon Co-Advisor Ken Baker said. “It’s nice for the students to see the fruits of their hard work. It always impresses me when the students are willing to show up on a Sunday evening at 6 p.m. and are ready to start learning and working. The learning in this program rivals anything that goes on in a science classroom.”
“This team has been highly committed to addressing and learning about environmental problems for three years now,” co-Advisor Rob Taylor noted. “Their dedication has been impressive.”
The team consists of juniors Leah Burgess and Brenden Veilleux and seniors Abrahm Geissinger, Owen Schwab, and Dan Wilson.
Four Spruce Mountain Envirothon teams competed at the regional competition in May. Two of those teams placed first and second, earning the right to represent the school at the state event.
Throughout the year, Spruce Mountain Envirothon students collect water quality data for the Livermore Falls Water District and the Maine Lake Stewards, serve as stewards of the Androscoggin Land Trust Stevens Island Preserve, participate in an American Chestnut Foundation restoration project, help manage forest land on school property, and participate in a host of other local environmental projects.
Seniors Wilson and Schwab will both be entering the University of Maine next fall, majoring in environmental science.
“Envirothon helped me to figure out what I want to do and what I want to major in,” Schwab stated.
While recently working on the school’s greenhouse, Schwab detected nests of invasive browntail moths, which produce hairs that are released into the air and can cause health problems, on two fruit trees. The find was reported to the school administration and the nests were promptly removed by the building and grounds crew.
“I learned from Envirothon that I want to do this for a living,” Wilson noted. “I want to be an environmental consultant, which is basically being a professional Envirothoner.”
This summer, he will be working for Friends of Wilson Lake as a courtesy boat monitor to help prevent the spread of invasive aquatic plants.
At the Maine Envirothon, the students visited the Viles Arboretum, where, among other things, they analyzed soils in a test pit, demonstrated GPS and compass skills, measured and identified trees as well as animal skins and skulls, and solved problems involving water quality issues.
The veteran team, Maine Mudpuppies, also presented its solution to a problem scenario involving developing a 150 acre parcel of land into a carbon neutral farm that has 50 acres of forest land managed with Climate Smart Forestry Practices and 100 acres of agricultural land with a pick your own orchard and raising sheep and goats using intensive rotational grazing on pasture.
The team recommended goats and sheep because while all are ruminants with multiple stomach digestive systems, cows because of their larger size produce more methane. Methane is a greenhouse gas 27 times more powerful at trapping heat in the atmosphere than the carbon dioxide emitted from burning fossil fuels.
“The sheep are picky eaters and won’t eat all the plant species in the pasture,” Schwab said. “The uneaten plants would need to be mowed. That is what the goats are for!”
The team’s project featured the use of diverse farm animals, food crops, and business strategies to make the proposed farm both environmentally and economically sustainable.
“One of the major parts of our plan is the woodlot,” Veilleux, stated. “Eighty percent of the cooling effect of a shade tree is from the evaporative cooling effects of tree transpiration. This reduces the effects of a changing climate in the nearby ecosystems by cooling the area.
“Some key climate-smart forestry practices are protecting forests, growing new trees and forests, reducing stressors, and managing forests effectively. Selectively harvesting trees in this 50-acre woodlot is a great way to generate income, since the climate-smart forestry practice frees up more space for new trees to grow.”
“It is important to preserve and protect wetlands,” Burgess noted. “In fact, only six percent of our earth’s surface is wetlands and they store over 20% of terrestrial carbon. The wetlands on this property are peat bogs. Peat bogs are some of the most effective wetlands at storing carbon for long periods of time. These areas must be protected.
“Also, as the climate changes, the frequency of extreme weather becomes more common. This poses a risk of erosion to streambanks and wetlands. Maintaining vegetated buffers on the shores of water bodies reduces any potential damage that may occur.”
“A keystone of our plan is carbon sequestration in the forest,” Geissinger said. “Each kilogram of wood equals 1.65 kg of sequestered carbon dioxide or CO2. On average, trees in Maine weigh about four metric tons. Since the 50 acre plot has approximately 150 trees per acre, the forest has stored 50 million kg of CO2 and by our calculations will sequester an additional 45,000 kg per year.
“The protection of these lands prevents habitat loss and keeps mast readily available for wildlife. The tree harvest will increase productivity and the sunlight available. The result of these actions creates an efficient forest and an ecosystem with a larger carrying capacity.”
The team also used COMET Farm, the USDA’s carbon footprint calculator, to calculate the farm’s emissions footprint. The calculator indicated that their plan would allow the farm to sequester the equivalent of nearly 40 metric tons of CO2 per year, making it carbon negative.
“There is money available to help with this project,” Wilson added. “The Conservation Innovation Grant [CIG] from the USDA, helps fund innovative projects for soil health, forestry, aquatic organism protection, pollinator conservation, and irrigation. Also, the New England Climate Smart Forestry Partnership Project is another grant provided by the New England Forestry Foundation that strives for carbon storage and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.”
The team will be studying very hard over the next five weeks to prepare for the NCF International Envirothon in Canada at the end of July. The team will also be fundraising to meet the costs incurred while traveling.
According to advisor Rob Taylor, “The team was 20th in the world overall last year at the NCF competition in Ohio and took sixth in Aquatics and 11th in Soils. It is their third time competing at this level and there is a saying that “the third time’s a charm.” It will be fun to see what this crew can do at the next level.”
“It would have been really depressing if this team lost,” Wilson, who is also a student representative to the Regional School Unit 73 board of directors, said prior to the June 8 meeting. “This school holds to a standard for Envirothon, we hold ourselves to that standard. We don’t want to be the ones to lose.
“To succeed it is necessary to see yourself in a place of success.”
Nine teams competed at the Maine Envirothon, Veillieux noted.
Spruce Mountain’s other team finished third at the Maine Envirothon. The team consisted of freshmen Mason Labonte and Samuel Geissinger as well as sophomores Lily Fortier, Violet Bellerose, and Hannah Dube. All were first year Envirothon students.
“This group worked very hard this year and is very deserving of their third place finish,” Baker said. “They met with Justin Triquet and Nikki Leroux from JustNiks Mycosilva and incorporated growing Chaga mushrooms into their project.”
“I am looking forward to working with these kids over the next couple years,” added Taylor.
“We plan to improve next year,” Samuel said.
Spruce Mountain Envirothon would like to thank Joel Gilbert of Berry Fruit Farm, Robin Beck of Rockin Sheep Farm, and JustNiks Mycosilva for providing technical support and information this season, the Androscoggin Land Trust for hosting the Southwest Envirothon Regional at its Camp Gustin property, and the numerous organizations and businesses that have generously supported the program over the years. It also wishes to thank the Maine Association of Conservation Districts for its continued support in overseeing the Envirothon program in Maine.
For more information about Envirothon or the Spruce Mountain High School team, please contact Taylor at rtaylor@rsu73.com or 207-491-1137.
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