Students will compete in the Canon Envirothon in Fresno, CA beginning August 1.

Durham, N.C. – The Vicious Vipers, a group of five local home schooled high school students that have competed and won several local and state environmental education competitions, will travel to the University of California at Fresno to compete in the 2010 Canon Envirothon held August 1 -6, 2010.  The student group, sponsored by the Durham Soil and Water Conservation District, will compete against more than 500,000 students to test their knowledge of wildlife, soils, aquatics, forestry and current environmental issues.  Winning teams will receive many awards including college scholarships.  

Prior to next week’s competition, the Vicious Vipers took first place at the North Carolina Area 4 Envirothon in March.  The group later secured a first place win in the North Carolina Envirothon in late April. The students, who have competed in Envirothon competitions together for four years, will travel to Fresno, California with their team advisor, the Durham County Envirothon Coordinator, as the representative team of the North Carolina Envirothon.

For more information about the Vicious Vipers or the Canon Envirothon, contact Jennifer Brooks, soil conservationist and education coordinator for the Durham Soil and Water Conservation District, at 919-560-0558 or via email at jbrooks@co.durham.nc.us.

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Durham County Envirothon Program

The Durham County Envirothon Program is sponsored by the Durham Soil and Water Conservation District.  The program is open to middle and high school public, private and home school groups.  The program forms five-member teams that compete with hopes of advancing from local to state and national competitions.  High school and middle school teams do not compete again each other.

Canon Envirothon

Canon Envirothon is North America's largest high school environmental education competition. Reaching more than 500,000 students across North America annually, the Envirothon will test teams’ knowledge of environment science and natural resource management.  Teams competing in the 2010 competition will come from states across the United States and Canadian providences.   For more information about the 2010 Canon Envirothon, visit http://www.envirothon.org/.