Students get hands-on
Envirothon competition teaches real-life lessons
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Kids can only get so much from a textbook.
There’s no substitute for real life, hands-on experience, which is what students from five area schools gained Tuesday at a local Envirothon competition hosted by the Saratoga Soil & Water Conservation District and held at Saratoga Spa State Park.
This year’s winner was a Ballston Spa team.
“Envirothon helps kids connect class work to the outdoor world,” said Phil Zenowich, a Saratoga Central Catholic High School science teacher and team adviser. “It gets them out of their seats, out into nature to what it’s really like.”
The winners advance to state competition May 3031 at SUNY Morrisville, with a chance to reach the North American Envirothon Aug. 4-9 at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont.
The winning Ballston Spa students, George Stack, Felix Drescher, Elizabeth Altman and Jenica Acheta —all sophomores — are advised by teacher Georgiann Henderson.
Each year, kids are tested on a different topic.
This year’s subject, sustainable rangeland management, was a perfect fit for Ben Kruppenbacher of Charlton because he works
at his family’s beef cattle farm and this fall he’ll be going to Montana State to study agricultural education with a minor in live-stock management.
“I’d like to be an agricultural teacher,” said Kruppenbacher, 18, a senior at Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake High School.
Kids were quizzed on a variety of environmental topics, such as wildlife, aquatics, forestry and soils. They also had to pass a written test and make an oral presentation about the main topic — rangeland management.
“It’s a good subject for kids because it involves so many different aspects,” said Jim Calhoun, an Envirothon judge and retired Natural Resources Conservation Service official.
Rangeland and pastureland is not only a source of food for farm animals, but provides cover and food for birds and wildlife, as well as provides open vistas, he said.
In a hypothetical case study, teams had to pretend they were ranch owners applying to government officials for a permit to let their cattle graze on federal lands such as a national park or U.S. forestland.
“The grazing period would only be from June 1 to Oct. 28,” Kruppenbacher said. “After that, they’d come back to the ranch for winter.”
He and fellow teammates showed how cattle would be rotated from pasture to pasture to prevent overgrazing, with detailed specifics about the number, type and age of animals in each grouping. The program could have side benefits, too, such as educating the community about agriculture by hosting open houses to show people how the system works.
For students from nonagricultural backgrounds, Envirothon afforded an appreciation for the challenges faced by American farmers and ranchers.
“It’s far more complicated than I imagined,” said Emily Shea, a Saratoga Catholic senior. “Setting up an operation like this is expensive, too. You’d have to build fences, have irrigation and anticipate all sorts of weather. Plus, there’s transportation costs for moving cattle from place to place.”
Her teammates were Isabelle Eagan, Elle Valentine, Charles VanDergrift and Natalie Pikus.
Envirothon is an extracurricular student activity. The group began preparing in February.
Other participating teams were from Galway, Ballston Spa and Oppenheim- Ephratah Central School in St. Johnsville.
“This is my third year in Envirothon,” Shea said. “It’s always neat to see what the main topic is going to be each year.”