Eaton, OH – 4/28/2026
Students from Madison Plains High School participated in the Area IV (southwest Ohio regional) Envirothon on April 28th at The Preble County Historical Society in Eaton, OH. Envirothon is an outdoor, academic environmental competition for high school students.
The Envirothon program started in 1979 to encourage high school students to become interested in natural resource conservation, environmental issues, and careers. At the time, it was named the “Environmental Olympics," then shortened to “Enviro-Olympics,” and eventually to Envirothon. In 1988 the National Envirothon was born with competing teams from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Massachusetts.
Today, all 50 states have Envirothon programs and the National Envirothon also includes teams from Canada and China. Each year over 25,000 high school students worldwide participate; since inception, hundreds of thousands of students have participated. Many Envirothon alumni go on to have careers as forest rangers, climate scientists, biologists, conservationists, soil scientists, environmental educators, and more.
The event tests students’ knowledge of aquatic ecology, forestry, soil and land use, wildlife, and current environmental issues (CEI). This year’s CEI topic was “Adapting to a Changing Climate.”
At Tuesday's competition, hosted by the Preble Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) and Montgomery SWCD, Madison Plains brought three teams with the top team finishing in 26th place out of 62 teams. Summit Country Day Team 3 advanced to Ohio’s States Envirothon along with Benjamin Logan, and Bethel Team 1. The winner of the state competition in June will represent Ohio at the national competition in July.
For more information about Envirothon contact the Madison SWCD Broc Sehen Wildlife Specialist, broc.sehen@oh.nacdnet.net, 740-852-4003 or visit envirothon.org and areaivenvirothon.org. There will be a workshop to prepare advisors to have a successful team hosted by Ohio Federation of Soil & Water Conservation Districts on June 4 and June 5 in London, Ohio. Visit https://ofswcd.org/news-events/event-calendar.html/event/2026/06/05/ohio-envirothon-teacher-training-event/554480 for more information.
Julia Cumming, Program Administrator
Broc Sehen, District Technician
740-852-4003
London, Ohio 43140
