It was quite the 2021-22 school year for the PCD Environmental Education team. We enjoyed returning to schools to work with teachers and students again. Throughout the school year, we involved over 2,100 students in our programming!

Here are some highlights from a busy year:

The Okanogan High School Envirothon team with their team advisor, displaying their beautiful first place trophy.

From across the state, eight high school teams traveled to the Lazy F Camp and Retreat in Ellensburg to compete in the 2022 Washington State Envirothon Competition. Each team had already competed in their respective regional events and won by county, and now had the chance to advance to the national competition in Ohio.

On this beautiful spring day buses and vans showed up to the camp and, one by one, students checked in, grabbed some extra breakfast and brain food, and excitedly (or nervously) prepared for the tests that lay ahead of them. They had studied the main topics of Envirothon for months, learning everything they could about natural resources and environmental science. On top of that, every team prepared a presentation on how to improve recycling systems in the state - a tall order to fill! The morning was spent putting their knowledge to the test, completing each exam and explaining their recycling plans to a panel of judges.

For the first time this year, PCD raised live animals in our very own office-coho salmon! We raised them for Salmon in the Classroom, a partnership between Foss Waterway Seaport (FWS),  (TPS), and our Environmental Education team. We helped FWS teach lessons, provide tank support, and troubleshoot tank issues at 12 Tacoma elementary schools. When all was said and done, we had our salmon for about four months, raised them from eggs to fry and then released them into the wild. There was so much to learn and do to raise our coho, which took a lot of time and attention, but it was completely worth it!