Students Hone Environmental Awareness in Statewide Competition Hosted by PPL's Montour Preserve

ALLENTOWN, Pa., May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 300 high school students from across the state demonstrated their knowledge of environmental issues during the 22nd Pennsylvania State Envirothon competition, hosted by PPL Corporation at its Montour Preserve.

Teams representing 64 counties took part in the event, which helps students better understand the complex relationships between society and the environment.

PPL is an Envirothon corporate sponsor and Montour Preserve is the only corporation-owned facility that is used as a host site for the statewide competition.

Montour Preserve is a 966-acre facility in Montour County that includes a 165-acre lake for boating and fishing, more than 14 miles of hiking and cross- country skiing trails, picnic areas, a shale-bank fossil pit and an environmental education center. PPL operates the preserve in conjunction with its Montour power plant.

"The Envirothon is a hands-on environmental education program that helps students learn to appreciate our natural resources. PPL is proud to be a sponsor and to have been selected as a host site for the event," said Kevin Drewencki, Montour Preserve superintendent.

During the competition, environmental professional questioned the students at testing stations on five topics: aquatic ecology, forestry, land use, wildlife and managing cultural landscapes. At a sixth, non-testing station, students conducted a crime scene investigation of a state game law violation.

A team of students representing Penncrest High School in Delaware County took top honors and will represent Pennsylvania at the 2005 Canon Envirothon - North American Program at Southwest Missouri State University in July. Each student on the winning team also received a $1,000 scholarship from the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture and State Conservation Commission.

Members of the winning team are: Joe Walker, Aimee Davis, Michelle Henry, Emily Moberg and Vic Janmey. Their advisors are Mark Samilenko and Chrissa Kuntz.

Blue Mountain High School in Schuylkill County was second. Each member of that team received $500 scholarships. North East High School in Erie County finished third. Each member of that team received $300 scholarships.

Kathleen A. McGinty, Pennsylvania secretary of Environmental Resources, and Dennis Wolff, Pennsylvania secretary of Agriculture, presented awards to the top teams.

Primary sponsors of the Envirothon are Pennsylvania's county conservation districts, the State Conservation Commission and the Pennsylvania Association of Conservation Districts.

PPL Corporation , headquartered in Allentown, Pa., controls about 12,000 megawatts of generating capacity in the United States, sells energy in key U.S. markets and delivers electricity to nearly 5 million customers in Pennsylvania, the United Kingdom and Latin America. More information is available at http://www.pplweb.com/.