This year's National Envirothon was held in the small town of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, at Acadia University. Forty-nine teams competed during the week, many of which, Virginia's included, arrived a few days early to hike and explore the countryside. As Wolfville lies on the Bay of Fundy, there was also opportunity to watch the tides, which are the highest in the world, rising up to 50 feet above their low-tide mark.

After touring different preparatory teaching stations on the first day, we were bussed out to the testing sites, where we were given forty five minutes to complete each of five tests on the different areas of concentration‹wetlands, wildlife, forestry, soils, and aquatics. The tests consisted mostly of questions on ecology, conservation, management, and identification. Many of the questions had a hands-on approach; for example, we had to make use of a soil pit at the soils site in order to classify the soil texture of the B soil horizon. Each team consisted of five students, each one of whom specialized in a different one of the five focus areas.

The rest of the week was largely spent preparing for the final presentation. Without knowing the actual presentation problem, the teams were bussed out to various sites near the bay to hear a number of presentations by biologists, hunters, peat and cattle farmers, and hydroelectric plant personnel. Each of these speeches would somehow relate to our presentation topic, and we were permitted to take notes to use the next day while preparing our project. The next morning we heard several more presentations at the University before finally receiving the presentation topic. The most trying part of the competition occurred thereafter, when each team was sequestered for eleven hours to work on the problem, which was to construct a management plan for the Annapolis River Valley watershed in which we were staying. We were provided only with a few basic poster-making supplies and our notes from that morning and the day before.

The next morning all the teams presented before one of several groups of judges. We had twenty minutes to present, and then a period for questioning from the judges. After presenting, each team was free to roam, and we went down to the local farmers' market with our coaches. That evening was the closing dinner ceremony and the presentation of awards. Virginia placed 13th overall out of 49 and received first place in the aquatics section. The teams departed early the next morning for their home states or provinces.