From May 29th through June 1st, Forests Ontario hosted the 2016 Ontario Envirothon Championship, an event that brought more than one hundred students, teachers and volunteers from across Ontario to the Frost Campus of Fleming College in Lindsay. The program supports students in developing their understanding of natural ecosystems, providing practical experience in resource management practices while developing stronger communication and problem solving skills.
Every year, more than 10,000 high-school students from across Ontario participate in the Ontario Envirothon, an educational program focussed on helping to build the green leaders of tomorrow. After winning their local competitions, teams from across seventeen regions advanced to represent their schools at the 2016 Ontario Envirothon Championship in Lindsay. Team were comprised of five students, each of whom would lead their team’s presentation in a specific area of focus – Soils, Aquatics, Forests, Wildlife and Invasive Species – a topic chosen for this year’s Envirothon.
The teams participated in outdoor workshops encompassing all five topics on Monday. Field testing was completed on Tuesday, leading to team presentations on June 1st. On the final morning of the competition, school teams were given their Presentation Problem, assigned Meeting Rooms and allotted four hours to prepare their presentation.
The topic: “The short and long term restoration of a quarry for future community use.”
As a team, the challenge was to prepare a presentation to the municipal council (represented by the multiple teams of judges) incorporating all five environmental areas; detailing the inherent problems that they might encounter and providing feasible solutions to the problems; describing the restoration work to be done; who will do the work; estimating the short and long term costs and how they would source funds to bring the project to reality.
Three team finalists were decided after the presentations. These teams competed again for the Championship in front of VIP judges and the other teams.
After much deliberation the final rankings were decided:
- First Place and 2016 Ontario Envirothon Champions – the University of Toronto Schools, Toronto Region, will represent Ontario in the 2016 North American Envirothon 2016 to be held in Peterborough, Ontario from July 24 – 29th, 2016.
- Second Place – St. Elizabeth Catholic HS – Thornhill
- Third place – Cardinal Newman HS – Stoney Creek
Maple Leaves Forever was a proud sponsor of the 2016 Ontario Envirothon Championship. Ken Jewett, founder of Maple Leaves Forever, presented awards to the three winning teams during the closing ceremonies. He congratulated Forests Ontario, all the students, teachers, volunteers and unseen supporters who made the Ontario Envirothon Championship a resounding success and thanked Fleming College for hosting the Event.