Students showcase eco-smarts on Earth Day

SALEM TWP. – Though unplanned, it was by apt coincidence that about 170 students from 11 school districts throughout Luzerne County celebrated Earth Day by testing their ecological knowledge.

The Luzerne Conservation District held its annual Envirothon competition on Wednesday in the Riverlands park at PPL Corp.’s nuclear Susquehanna Steam Electric Station.

Team A from Wyoming Valley West took the top spot, earning 384 points and qualified its members for the state competition in May. The team included seniors George Brady, Matt Januski, Michael Pretko, Megan Chan and junior Dan Rish.

They beat out about 35 other teams on five different tests ranging in topics from soil structures to tree measuring to animal and bird call identification. The fifth topic, which changes each year, delved into the impacts of and threats to biodiversity.

Attendance was up this year. Though two past contenders, MMI Prep and Northwest Area were absent, there were more students from the returning schools, said Josh Longmore, the conservation district’s executive director.

“This year, it seems like the teachers are really involved and recruiting kids,” he said.

Another change was in the difficulty of the tests, and it didn’t help that some teams were missing members. GAR High’s A team, seniors Julia Zafia, Rhina Navarro and Gabriel Rosa and junior Matt Kasper, felt they were doing well until they hit the biodiversity station, where their fifth member, who hadn’t shown up, was expected to excel.

When tasked with deciding which nutrients emitted as effluent from sewage-treatment facilities cause the most damage to aquatic ecosystems, the team debated until Kasper picked phosphorous and lime. “Lime is that thing that if you drink it…” he said, writing down the answer. “Or is that lye? I think it’s lye.”

But the moderator announced just 13 minutes remained, and the team still had many questions left.