Conservation Field Day
Each September the District hosts a Conservation Field Day for the area's sixth grade classes. There are typically fourteen presenters from Illinois Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Illinois Natural History Survey, other soil and water conservation districts, local artisans and the University of Illinois Extension. The students receive a presention on a wide variety of topics and then move on to the next station. We have had as many as 400 sixth graders at one field day. This years field day will be held on September 19, 2012 at Living Springs camp ground northwest of Lewistown.
Envirothon
The Envirothon is a North American competition, sponsed by Canon, for high school aged students to learn about natural resources and problem solving. There are five catagories: Aquatics, Forestry, Wildlife, Soils and an enviromental issue that, after a short presentation, they are given a senario and have ten minutes to develop a solution and present it to the panel of judges. The winning school then can participate in the State competition and then the winning school there can compete in the North American competition with schools from the U.S. and Canada.
The competition that the District is part of is the Land Use Council 4 Envirothon. This is comprised of schools from Fulton, Knox, Warren, McDonough, Handcock and Henderson Counties. Within those six Districts there were 13 schools that participated. This years Land Use Council 4 winner was Spoon River Valley. They represented the Council at the State competition and placed fourth overall, a very good showing.
The following Fulton County schools that participated in the local competition were: Lewistown, Spoon River Valley and Cuba.