JAY — Leah Burgess, a senior at Spruce Mountain High School, has been named the Maine Environmental Education Association Student of the Year.

She is to be presented the award at a May 10 ceremony at the Maine Academy of Natural Sciences in Hinckley.

She was nominated for the award by Rob Taylor, physics and environmental teacher and Envirothon adviser at the school. In an April 7 interview, Taylor said he nominated Burgess for several reasons.

“One was obviously her success with the Envirothon program,” Taylor said. “If her team was to win this year, she will have been on a state championship team for four consecutive years.”

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. For the latter, teams research a resource management problem, develop a sustainable plan to address the issue and give an oral presentation describing that solution.

As a freshman in 2021, Burgess and others on the school’s Envirothon Lynx Team competed virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. After winning the state competition, the team finished 34th in the virtual international competition, which was hosted by the National Conservation Foundation (NCF) and the Nebraska Natural Resource Districts.

Her team in 2022 earned the right to represent Maine at the international competition held in Ohio where it placed 20th. In 2023, her team placed 16th at the international competition in Tantramar, New Brunswick, Canada.

“The bigger part in nominating Leah is all the other things she has been involved with over the last four years,” Taylor said. “Water quality testing down at Moose Hill Pond, working as a steward for Stevens Island with the Androscoggin Land Trust, showing up for community events like the Apple Pumpkin Festival when we have Envirothon outreach. It’s all those little environmental things that add up over time.

“I think those are the reasons that the selection committee selected her. It was really for her commitment to environmentalism.”

When asked what she liked most about working with environmental issues, Burgess said: “I know it is not just a short-term benefit, right in the moment. It will eventually benefit my kids, your kids and then all of our kids in generations on. I think also me being excited about it, I try to make others really excited about it because it really is a full team effort when it comes down to it.”

She said it is a sense of community as well.

“These things, doing Earth cleanups you don’t do it by yourself,” she said. “It is much more engaging when you are with a group of people. You can actually talk about it and feel accomplished after that.”

Burgess will be attending the University of New Hampshire, where she will study environmental engineering.

“I really hope to find a career where I can focus in on protecting natural resources,” she said. “It fits in really well with our current issue (problem in Envirothon this year). Protecting soil resources like farmland, also protecting our waterways and other things like that.”

As much fun as it is for Burgess to remediate things, she said she wants to be on the “back end of protecting those things from even happening.”

People’s opinions about environmental things are what Burgess finds most frustrating.

“I think we inevitably use the land every day,” she said. “Just driving to work, that is something that gets taken advantage of. For instance, when we had those flooding events, one flood like that and guess what — four roads were out the door, months in repair. So, it’s just little things like that. Making sure that your drainage systems are up to date and can withstand the storms that are coming through because eventually those roads can be seen as lifelines. Those roads get you to hospitals, to help.

“It is just a wider view and I feel like opinions just get in the way of that, from seeing the true things we take advantage of every day.”

Burgess first learned about Envirothon while in Taylor’s gifted and talented program in sixth grade. She was also in his earth and physical science class the following year.

“He always spoke of Envirothon,” Burgess said. “His Envirothon pictures were hanging on the wall. He talked team activities, said, ‘Make sure you sign up when you get to the high school.’ Just little hints and him as a person. He is a very involved person, a very personable person as well. He likes to get to know you on a different level as a person. That makes you want to join.”

Asked about her feelings on winning this award, Burgess said: “Mr. Taylor told me he nominated me for it. I was like: ‘What? Oh, that’s cool!’ I know there are a lot of people like me who are doing things like this in the state, especially as effects of climate change become worse.”

She said she did not think what she was doing was as impactful as things she heard about other people her age doing.

“One of the things I am most excited about is this award launches me into a new network of people,” Burgess said. “With the field that I want to obtain, environmental engineering, those are some pretty big and nice names to have in my network to potentially use in my future. Also more ways to help my environment, more opportunities.”

Burgess will be accompanied by her parents and Taylor when she receives the award.

“Leah does a lot more than just be on the Envirothon team and that is a lot in and of itself,” Taylor said. “She just does a whole lot of things in our community.”

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