Southern Oregon Regional Envirothon

The Southern Oregon Regional Envirothon Competition is closely modeled after the Oregon Envirothon Competition, a state-wide natural resources competition for high school students. Envirothon is a hands-on environmental problem-solving competition for high school students throughout the United States and Canada. Each year, teams from states and provinces across the US and Canada compete to become champions worthy of competing at the North American Envirothon Competition held each year in various locations.

Oregon's first ever regional envirothon was held on April 7, 2021 at Crater Land Lab. We had five regional teams compete--three of which went on to place in the top five at the Oregon state Envirothon out of twenty-five teams!

However, with only one consistent team competing from Jackson County in recent years, Jackson Soil & Water Conservation District , Crater Renaissance Academy, Logos Public Charter School, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, and Grayback Forestry, the Bureau of Land Management, and Rogue River Watershed Council have worked to develop a locally-based competition to make it easier for teachers to coordinate schedules, build projects into their ongoing curriculum, and to reduce, if not eliminate, the cost of competing to local families (costs associated with traveling to Silverton, and trainings in other parts of the state). Additionally, we hope that by expanding our local competition to middle school students we will begin to build the local natural resources knowledge-base of our youth at an earlier age. This will benefit the community in a number of ways 1) Students will develop a greater appreciation for and understanding of Jackson County’s ( and Southern Oregon’s) resources and their management 2) Students will leave high school with a stronger grasp of natural sciences than those who do not compete 3) With the support of participating teachers, regional teams may decide in the future to compete at the State level with the potential of competing at the National Envirothon Competition.

Benefits to Competing Teachers

• Technical support from local natural resources professionals
• Networking opportunities with other teachers and districts involved with regional competition
• Excellent opportunity to build on to or support already in-place NGSS, NAAEE, and Common Core curriculum in the classroom with hands-on, real world experiences
• Continued education to improve your confidence with natural resources curricula

Benefits to Competing Students

• Opportunity to connect with local natural resource professional
• College course preparation and career skills development
• Meet other, local students with similar interests
• Learn about local, current natural resources concerns
• Improve your critical thinking and problem-solving skills
• Improve your ability to work with a team