NCF-Envirothon is an annual environmentally themed academic competition for high school aged students organized by the NCF-Envirothon a program of the National Conservation Foundation. The competition is held by the United States and Canada on a regional, state, and bi-national level. Envirothon combines in-class and hands-on environmental education in a competition setting which involves a problem-solving presentation as well as written field tests. The competition tests students on five core subjects- aquatic ecology, forestry, soils and land use, wildlife- along with a fifth annually-changing subtopic which focuses on relevant environmental issues. Currently, roughly 500,000 students from forty-five U.S. states and nine Canadian provinces/territories participate in the competition. States and provinces across the United States and Canada each have their own local competitions from which the winning high school team earns the privilege of representing their state/province at the NCF-Envirothon competition, held each summer in a different U.S. state or Canadian province. In areas with a considerable number of teams, subdivisions such as county, regional, or district competitions are also held. Teams must win these intermediary competitions in order to move on to the state/province levels. Organizers and Sponsors The NCF-Envirothon is a 501(c)3 Nonprofit organization headquartered in Washington,D.C. Coordinating the delivery of the North American competition, the organization also relies heavily on volunteers across North America to advise individual teams from each participating state and province. Governing the program is the National Conservation Foundation (NCF) Executive, along with a NCF-Envirothon Operating Committee which is made up of representatives from participating states and provinces. Envirothon is sponsored by the National Conservation Foundation, the National Association of Conservation Districts, the United States Forest Service, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service. Individual teams are often sponsored by school clubs or classes, local businesses and governments, or 4H and other such non-scholastic organizations. Competition Competition participants are generally teams of five students with one to two team advisers. Home-schoolers can also take part as their own team. States and provinces across the United States and Canada each have their own local competitions from which the winning high school team earns the privilege of representing their state/province at the North American Envirothon Competition, held each summer in a different U.S. state or Canadian province. In regions with a considerable number of teams, competitions on subdivision, county, regional, or district levels are also held. Teams must win these intermediary competitions in order to move on to