The
Sustainability
Project.

Envirothon is an annual competition between secondary school groups to test their knowledge on Environmental Science, and the theme for 2026 was Non Point Source Pollution and its origins in both urban and rural settings. Earlier this week, the St. Mary's High School team won the 2026 Regional Envirothon competition April 29, 2026 held at the Sydenham Sportsmen's Association grounds just south of Owen Sound. The weather was amazing, there were tons of volunteers, and good food and smiles everywhere. Testing took place on 4 topics: Aquatics, Forestry, Soils, and Wildlife. Thanks to the teachers, and students for their commitment to training all year for the competition and good luck to St. Mary's who are invited to move on to the Provincial competition, to represent Grey-Bruce.

A fun video explainer can be found here.

5 things you didn't know about Envirothon.

1. Teams meet outside of school time prior to the competition, not unlike school sports teams, to build environmental awareness.
2. Registration fees are heavily subsidized in Grey-Bruce thanks to Forest Canada and other sponsors.
3. Team members have to relinquish any cell phones or internet-enabled devices during the competition.
4. For several years prior to Envirothon, the event was called the Environmental Olympics.
5. The 100,000s of Envirothon participants over the past 45 years are now the forest rangers, climate change scientists, biologists, conservationists and soil scientists of today.

Each year, the winning team at each of the 13 regional competitions -- like the team from St. Mary's in Grey-Bruce this past Wednesday -- advances to a Provincial competition and the winners of provincials compete at the North America finals, which this year are taking place in Mississippi in mid-July

Photo 1: "The Bruce Peninsula District School team at the soils station with Envirothon volunteer Joachim Schmidt, taken at the 2026 Regional Envirothon competition April 29, 2026 in Owen Sound." Photo Credit Leigh Grigg

Photo 2: "The winning team from St. Mary's Catholic High School at the 2026 Regional Envirothon competition April 29, 2026 in Owen Sound." Photo Credit Jo-Anne Harbinson

Photo 3: "file photo of participants from a previous North American final". Photo Credit www.envirothon.org