From left, Caleb Steves of Fair Haven, Cayman Pratt of West Rutland, Evan Dennison of West Rutland, Savannah Mitchell of Whiting, Jack Bartholemew of Benson, Ryan McNeil of Rutland, and Conway Clark of Fair Haven celebrate their 2023 Vermont Envirothon win at Shelburne Farms in Shelburne last week.
Photo provided by Mike Stannard
Students of Stafford Technical Center’s Forestry and Natural Resource Management program took home a big win at the 2023 Vermont Envirothon on Tuesday, placing first in the forestry category.
The Vermont Envirothon, which took place at Shelburne Farms this year, is a state-wide competition where high school students test their knowledge of forestry, soil and land use, aquatic ecology, wildlife and current environmental issues.
This year is the first year the competition has returned post-COVID.
Over the course of the day-long competition, teams answer questions and complete tasks in each 45-minute competition category and receive a score on overall performance in each one.
Students are also asked to give an oral presentation on a topic chosen by Envirothon coordinators. This year’s topic was climate change.
“These students have done their Game of Logging certification one and two this fall, a timber harvest, and we’ve been sawing lumber. These students understand the application of these skills,” Program Instructor Mike Stannard said. “We’ve been training almost daily with the tools we needed (for the competition). And there’s just so many other peripheral skills and knowledge they have obtained for the other parts of the competition.”
STC students, in one team of five and one team of two, competed against five other teams from across the state. While the team of five, Stafford Tech 1, was ultimately the group to take home the win for STC, Stannard said the team of two, Stafford Tech 2 received a variety of very positive feedback from adjudicators.
According to Stannard, Team 2 was going to be a complete five-member team, but scheduling conflicts resulted in the downsizing.
Ryan McNeil, a sophomore from Rutland High School and Team 2 competitor, said that while it wasn’t easy to tackle the challenges with only the help of his partner, Jack Bartholemew, the two enjoyed the competition all the same.
“We decided we might as well go and have fun because if we did the test, we could learn something that we didn’t know before. So, why not just do it and have fun,” McNeil said. “And I think we did a pretty good job.”
Stannard said that during the past decade or so, STC students have won nine awards across the various categories with the help of previous Program Instructor Mark Raishart.
He added that STC has only ever won the forestry category once before, in 2016.
Savannah Mitchell, a junior from Otter Valley Union High School who competed on Team 1, said that having this opportunity was amazing and that she was incredibly happy with the result of her team’s work.
“It was a whirlwind experience. I feel like we did well in all of (the categories), but wildlife and forestry were for sure our best since our program is based around them. When we got the plaque, we were all in awe. It was cool to be there, but to learn more than what we learn here was amazing,” she said.
Caleb Steves, a senior from Fair Haven Union Middle and High School who was also on Team 1, said he learned a lot from the experience — especially since he will be headed off to pursue a degree in forestry at Paul Smith’s College in the fall.
“I definitely learned a lot about soil, aquatics and how to work as a team to figure out the questions,” Steves said. “I’ve grown up in Vermont. I’ve always liked to be outside and work with trees. Once I got in the program here (at Stafford), that really kick-started everything. This program introduced me to the tools that I’m going to need for my major that I’m going for.”
The overall winner of the event, one of North Country Career Center’s two competing teams, will represent Vermont at the North American Envirothon, set to take place from July 23 to 29 at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada.
“We live in a time period where there is less and less frame of reference in our youth for the outdoors, conservation, environmental issues and those old-school Vermont occupations,” Stannard said. “This actually gets them excited about doing things that most students would never have any experience with and that could truly be, with employment trends, their ticket to a great career and a great life that they enjoy outdoors.”
sophia.buckley-clement
@rutlandherald.com