The 16th season of the Delaware Envirothon, sponsored by the Delaware Association of Conservation Districts, will begin with its first training workshop from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 16, at Blackbird State Forest, just north of Smyrna. The second training workshop will be held on Saturday, Nov. 20, at the University of Delaware Cooperative Extension Service (Paradee Building - 69 Transportation Circle), in Dover. The final training workshop will be held on Saturday, January 22, 2011, at the St. Jones Reserve in Dover.

The Delaware Envirothon provides challenging environmental education and hands-on instruction, correlated to state education standards, to participating teams of high school age students. Throughout the year students learn about the resource topics of Aquatic Ecology, Forestry, Soils/Land Use, Wildlife, and a fifth topic that changes each year. The topic for 2011 is Salt and Freshwater Estuaries.

During the spring competition, which will be held in New Castle County on Thursday, April 14, 2011, students will be tested on their knowledge of the natural resource topics. Additionally students must prepare an oral presentation to provide an answer for the given scenario based on the resource topics. Teams will be competing in the Delaware Envirothon to receive college scholarships and to represent Delaware at the 2011 Canon Envirothon next summer in Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada. To register for the workshops or to receive more information about the program, contact Kerin Hume at 302-741-2600. Additional information about the Delaware Envirothon can also be found on their website at www.delawareenvirothon.org.