High School Contests

Envirothon

High school students from across Nebraska gathered April 30, 2025, in Omaha for the 33rd annual Nebraska State Envirothon. Dawson County Envirothon Club earned the championship title and a $1,500 prize, securing their spot to represent Nebraska at the National Conservation Foundation (NCF) Envirothon, which will be held in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Envirothon is an environmental education program for high school students that combines classroom learning and outdoor activities. The competition rotates around the state, and this year’s competition was hosted at Papio-Missouri River Natural Resources District’s Chalco Hills Recreation Area in Omaha.

“Envirothon allows students to get outdoors and learn about natural resources in a hands-on environment,” said Martin Graff, Nebraska Association of Resources Districts (NARD) president. “The activities are designed to help students become environmentally aware, action-oriented adults, but also exposes them to many exciting career opportunities.”

During the state competition, five-member teams were tested on their knowledge of aquatics, forestry, policy, range, soils and wildlife, as well as prepared and delivered an oral presentation focusing on a current environmental issue. Some of the immersive test questions require students to identify live animals, measure trees, distinguish range grasses and determine soil texture.

The 2025 oral presentation theme “Roots and Resiliency: Fostering Forest Stewardship in a Canopy of Change” challenged teams to develop a sustainable management plan for a section of the Boreal Forest, ensuring its long-term health and resilience in the face of climate change. “Students work together to research the current environmental issue, and consider the hypothetical impacts,” Graff said. “It is important to train students to think critically and problem solve, because they’ll encounter difficult issues in their lives and their future careers.”

The NARD Foundation awarded cash prizes to the top three teams at the state competition:

• First Place ($1,500): Dawson County Envirothon Club
• Second Place ($1,000): Concordia Lutheran of Omaha
• Third Place ($500): Tri-County Public Schools

Additional prizes were awarded to the top teams in each testing category:

• Aquatics: Dawson County Envirothon Club
• Forestry: Tri-County Public Schools
• Policy: Dawson County Envirothon Club
• Range: Dawson County Envirothon Club
• Soils: Dawson County Envirothon Club
• Wildlife (Tie): Dawson County Envirothon Club and St. Paul
• Oral Presentation: Dawson County Envirothon Club

Seventy teams competed in the regional contests during February and March, and 14 teams qualified to participate in the state competition. Dawson County Envirothon Club will represent Nebraska at the NCF-Envirothon July 19-26, 2025, to compete for a top prize of $15,000. The international NCF-Envirothon will be hosted at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and include more than 45 teams from the U.S., Canada, China and Singapore.

In addition to Nebraska’s Natural Resources Districts, 2025 Nebraska Envirothon sponsors and partners included Farm Credit Services of America, HDR, Houston Engineering, Nebraska Department of Natural Resources, Nebraska Department of Environment and Energy, Nebraska Forest Service, Nebraska Game & Parks Commission, Nebraska FFA Foundation, Smithfield Foods, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and the University of Nebraska School of Natural Resources.

earn more about the Nebraska Envirothon at www.nrdnet.org/nebraska-envirothon.

The Nebraska Association of Resources Districts (NARD), the trade association for Nebraska's 23 Natural Resources Districts (NRD), works with individual districts to protect lives, property and the future of Nebraska’s natural resources. NRDs are unique to Nebraska, and act as local government entities with broad responsibilities to protect Nebraska’s natural resources. Major Nebraska river basins form the boundaries of the 23 NRDs, enabling districts to respond to local conservation and resource management needs. Learn more about Nebraska’s NRDs at www.nrdnet.org.

Forestry_Dawson_County: Students from Dawson County Envirothon Club work together at the Forestry station to measure tree diameter during the Nebraska Envirothon April 30, 2025.

Second_Concordia_Lutheran: Concordia Lutheran of Omaha took second place and $1,000 during the Nebraska Envirothon April 30, 2025. Team members include: Aiden Baessler, Cole Bennett, Malachi Ellis, Peder Ersland and Max Jones.

Third_Tri-County: Tri-County Public Schools took third place and $500 during the Nebraska Envirothon April 30, 2025. Team members include: Henry Kapke, Parker Person, Garrett Smidt, Jason Werhman and Jacob Wollenburg.

Wildlife_St. Paul: Students from St. Paul High School work together at the Wildlife station during the Nebraska Envirothon April 30, 2025. St. Paul took home a high score award in Wildlife. Team members include: Layne Baker, Emerson Hancock, Matthew Kramer, Rylan Rasmussen and Grady Ryan.

The Envirothon is an environmental and natural resources education competition, reaching more than 25,000 high school students across the United States, Canada & China annually. The Nebraska Envirothon is a competition designed for high school students (9th-12th grades) to test their knowledge about the environment.  Five-member teams compete to demonstrate their knowledge and understanding in aquatics, forestry, soils, wildlife and a current environmental issue. The top team from each state, province and nation partner participate in the annual NCF-Envirothon. The goal of the annual competition is help shape our future leaders’ knowledge in natural resources issues.
Your Central Envirothon Contacts:
Alan Bartels, Lower Loup NRD      Email: abartels@llnrd.org      |   Tel: (308) 728-3221
Brody Vorderstrasse, Central Platte NRD     Fax: (308) 385-6285     |   Email: brody@cpnrd.org     |   Tel: (308) 395-7590
Marcia Lee, Central Platte NRD  |    Fax: (308) 385-6285    |    Email: lee@cpnrd.org     |   Tel: (308) 395-7551

The Nebraska Association of Resources Districts (NARD) Foundation is the annual sponsor of the Nebraska Envirothon. NARD Foundation gives $1,500 to the 1st place winning team, $1,000 to 2nd place, and $500 to the third-place team. Each team must use the money to enhance their high school’s Envirothon and natural resources & agriculture programs. The winning team can also use it to help pay their way to the international competition. Each team member on the winning team is also awarded a $500 scholarship by UNL to be used towards a major in the College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources.

Learn more about the Nebraska Envirothon at www.nrdnet.org/nebraska-envirothon

Land Evaluation

Land Judging is a high school competition that challenges students to gain a better understanding of soil structure and land evaluation. Land Judging enables each participant to learn how to recognize the physical features of the soil, determine land capability for crop production, and evaluate management practices needed for proper stewardship. Soil, land and home-site evaluation provide a setting for students to investigate the soils in their region, the environment that surrounds them and their effect on their daily lives. There are three divisions as part of the contest – students, adults, and professionals.

During the competition, students judge four soil pits using an evaluation card to make assessments on: soil depth, surface texture, permeability, slope, thickness of surface and erosion. Each evaluation card is scored and added together to determine overall scores for individuals and the team. In order to compete in the state contest, teams advance from one of the seven regional competitions hosted across the state in October.

South Central Contest  - hosted by CPNRD & NRCS in Buffalo County

TEAM RESULTS       INDIVIDUAL RESULTS 

 YOUR CPNRD CONTACT INFO:  (308) 385-6282  |  Marcia Lee lee@cpnrd.org  |  Brody Vorderstrasse  brody@cpnrd.org