Taranaki Regional Council chairman David Walter (centre) encountered four of the region's keenest and greenest young minds recently.
With him are (from left) Anna Duynhoven, from Inglewood High School, Melany Gibbs and Kris Barron, both Opunake High School, and Jason Senior, from Francis Douglas Memorial College. A fifth student, Michelle Cumming from Hawera High School, was on a field trip and could not attend.
Mr Walter was congratulating the students for their success in a council-organised essay competition promoting next month's Sir Peter Blake Youth Environment Forum in Wellington.
Anna and Michelle, both 17, and Jason, 16, won the competition and will represent Taranaki at the July 1-5 forum, which will bring together 45 young people from around the country.
Melany and Kris, both 16, were runners-up and each receives $200 worth of educational resources.
Anna's essay was on the use of fertiliser, Michelle wrote about the threat of didymo and Jason's topic was coastal erosion. Melany's essay was on water resources and suburban sprawl, and Kris wrote about rubbish and pest control.
Mr Walter told the students the national forum would be a challenging, but rewarding and stimulating experience. They would come back with many ideas on how to improve the environment.
Delegates will spend a week participating in community projects, voicing their opinion on environmental issues and learning first-hand about environmental management.
As well as networking with other like-minded young environmentalists, they will meet Environment Minister David Benson Pope, Sir Peter Blake trust executive director Mark Orams and Ministry for the Environment chief executive, Hugh Logan.
Council education officer Kevin Archer said the standard of entries in the competition was very high and it was difficult to choose between the three winners and two runners-up.
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