MASSACHUSETTS ENVIR THON MASSACHUSETTS Thursday, May 16, 2013 Borderland State Park, NorthENV EastonIR Mass.THON Welcome!Whatever the weather, we accept the Envirothon challenge! Every year, the Envirothon is a chance to test our knowledge and skills in the real world, outdoors. We hold the Envirothon in a Massachusetts State Park to give you a chance to explore a landscape that we the people of Massachusetts have set aside to be protected and enjoyed by all. What state park or forest is in your neighborhood? The mansion at Borderland State Park On the day of the Envirothon you will find that you are a part of a larger This Year’s Registered Teams community – of young people and adults, Teams marked with an asterisk participated in this year’s program but are not competing today. from across our Commonwealth – who • 4H Envirothon Club • Rockport Environmental Action Team are ready to step up to improve the • Acton-Boxborough Regional High • Somerset Berkley Regional High environment in their community. It’s School School a good place to make new friends and • Bedford High School * • South Hadley High School connections. We’ve got lots of work to do. • Boston College High School • Southeastern Regional School District Thank you all for making this a great • Bristol County Agricultural High • Springfield Central High School year for Mass. Envirothon. Now: enjoy School * • Sutton High School the day. Push yourself to do your best. • David Prouty High School • Taconic High School * And take time to enjoy the people and park • Doherty Memorial High School • Tantasqua High School around you. • Greater New Bedford Regional Vo- • TechBoston Academy Tech High School Have a great day! • Weston/Land’s Sake • Greenfield High School • Worcester South Community High • Hopkinton High School • Worcester Technical High School Chair • Leicester High School Mass. Envirothon Steering Committee • Lexington High School Inside • Millbury Jr. Sr. High School Schedule ....................................... 2 • Monson Environmental Action Team Steering Committee ...................... 2 2013 Current Issue • New Mission Academy Station Coordinators .................... 2 Trees, Forests, and • Newton North High School What Happens at an Ecostation? .. 2 • Nipmuc Meet Our Host Site ....................... 3 Sustainability Roundtables .................................. 3 • Oliver Ames High School 2013 Current Issue ........................ 4 • Pioneer Valley Regional School Current Issue Presentation Judges .. 5 • Quabbin Regional High School Volunteers .................................... 6 • R.C. Mahar Regional High School Site Map ........................................ 7 Sponsors .......................................8 • Reading Memorial High School 2013 Massachusetts Envirothon Schedule Massachusetts Envirothon Steering Committee Will Snyder Chair, Massachusetts Envirothon Committee 7:30 - 8:30 Registration for volunteers University of Massachusetts Center for Agriculture/Extension and judges Susan Sacco Vice Chair, Massachusetts Envirothon Committee Registration for teams. Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) Teams will be assigned Doris Wood Treasurer/Secretary, Massachusetts Envirothon Committee to their stations and presentation time. Tom Anderson Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Team pictures Joe Perry Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Clif Read Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation 8:00 Orientation for volunteers George Zoto Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection and judges Matthew Goode Suffolk County Conservation District 8:30 - 8:45 WELCOME and announcements Non-voting Steering Committee Members 9:00 - 10:05 First period Al Averill USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service 10:15 - 11:20 Second period Meg Colclough Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Bill Dunham Belmont Enterprises 11:30 -12:35 Third period Kelley Freda Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation 12:35 - 2:00 LUNCH Dan Giza Alden Research Laboratory, Inc. 12:45 - 1:45 Roundtable discussions Pam Landry Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) Stations and exhibits open Julie Martin Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Liz McGuire Middlesex Conservation District Visit the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Dominique Pahlavan Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Service’s Watershed on Wheels Diane Baedeker Petit USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Visit the Student Conservation Association Brita Dempsey Massachusetts Envirothon Coordinator information table 1:45 Group photo .................................................................. Evaluation surveys Station Coordinators/Curriculum Specialists 2:00 Announcement of Al Averill USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Community Awards, Kelley Freda Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Current Issue winners and Pam Landry Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) partial station results Dominique Pahlavan Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs Joe Perry Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Clif Read Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation Will Snyder University of Massachusetts Center for Agriculture/Extension George Zoto Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection What happens at an Ecostation? At the Massachusetts Envirothon, The ecostations generally incorporate teams rotate through four ecostations, questions that are: in addition to giving their Current Issue presentation. Each ecostation has a • Written - multiple choice, true or false, different emphasis: forestry, soil, water or fill-in-the-blank. and wildlife. • Practical - This may include species When students arrive at each ecostation, identification, questions that relate to www.facebook.com/maenvirothon the examiners instruct them to get into the soils or habitat surrounding the their distinct teams. Teams listen to station, and hands-on activities. examiners for a brief time to become familiar with that station, its questions and any other special instructions. It’s then up to the team to determine their strategy in taking the exam. They can break up and use individual strengths (for example, one or two people focus on species ID, while the others do the written section), or go through the exam as a team. 2 www.maenvirothon.org 2013 Massachusetts Envirothon Meet Our Host Site Roundtables When the testing is over, everyone is Borderland State Park invited to unwind, meet new friends from across the state, and share community and environmental connections at the Roundtable discussions. Roundtables are freewheeling, small-group discussions about a place, a question, or an idea of your choice. Every team is invited to bring their presentation materials and start a conversation about what they have found in their communities. Community Award teams are especially encouraged to offer a roundtable. Leach Pond Here’s how it works: • For each team that wants to offer orderland State Park is one of the most Pud’s Pond was created by the Ames a roundtable, two or three “home historically significant tracts of publicly family in 1906 and named after Blanche’s B team” members share their team’s owned land in the Commonwealth. Created father. When walking next to the spillway topic with three or four visitors. in the early 1900s by artist and suffragist you can see the white roads inlaid in the Blanche Ames and her botanist husband dam when it was repaired in 1926. Upper • The place buzzes with ideas, opinions, Oakes, Borderland offers many of the same Leach Pond was created in 1939 for wildlife and concerns as each home team pleasures that the Ames family enjoyed: habitat and recreation. presents their topic and visitors offer walking and horseback riding on woodland The glaciated cliffs and outcroppings their own questions and views. trails, fishing and canoeing in the ponds, make the geology of Borderland unusually • Every 5-10 minutes, visitors leave one or, in winter, ice-skating and sledding. interesting. Throughout the park are table, move on to another, and the In 1906, Oakes and Blanche Ames examples of glacial “erratics,” granite process begins again. Team members purchased land on the border of Sharon boulders that were torn loose from the take turns sitting at the home table and Easton. The country estate they named bedrock and deposited some distance away. “Borderland” remained in the family for Glacial riverbeds are strewn with a multitude and visiting other tables. 65 years. In 1971, two years after the death of boulders and stones. These areas are EVERYONE is welcome to visit the evidence of the ferocious energy produced by of Blanche Ames, the Commonwealth of roundtables! Massachusetts acquired the estate and the run-off from melting glaciers. opened it as a state park. Much of the “natural” beauty of The family’s home, a three-storey stone Borderland is, in fact, the result of human mansion built in 1910, still stands. Its 20 activity. The ponds, fields, stone walls, rooms are furnished much as they were and pathways reflect a long history of when the Ameses lived here; many of agricultural and industrial use. Without Blanche Ames’ paintings grace the walls. continued management, the fields would return to forests and the ponds would Borderland encompasses 1773 acres become marshes and swamps. of woodlands, fields, ponds and unique geological formations.