On April 30, the annual Area I Envirothon was held in Seneca County at the Miller Conservation Farm.  Sixty-nine teams competed in the day-long event which involves tests in the five areas of aquatics, forestry, wildlife, soils and current environmental issues. This year’s theme was on human impact to recreational resources.
Both teams from Fort Jennings qualified for state by finishing in the top four, finishing first and third, respectively. This is the 11th consecutive year Fort Jennings has qualified for state competition. It will be held at Urbana University on June 8-10. The team will be going to Arizona in July for the Canon National Envirothon.
The students work as a five-person team and are instructed by an expert in the field before the tests are given out. Many questions are site-specific and involve area characteristics such as identifying trees, identifying animal pelts, skulls, and teeth, and judging soil characteristics in a pit dug on the site. Aquatic insect larvae plus bird nesting structures and habitat characteristics also need to be identified. The students rotate to one of the five testing areas every 30 minutes.
The top four teams out of each of the five area competitions qualify for state competition, where the same five areas of testing are included, as well as a presentation by the teams on the current environmental issue — alternative energy sources.
Team members going to state competition this year include, Scott Saum, Andy Kleman, Lance Gerdeman, Craig Saum, Keith Saum, Troy Warnecke, Andrew Huntsman, Todd Kleman, Drew Mesker and Kevin Stewart. The team is coached by Jeff Jostpille.