When it comes to the environment, students from the Westmoreland Enrichment Classes are a natural.

For the second year in a row, this team of home-schooled teenagers is the champion of the Westmoreland Conservation District's Envirothon.

Westmoreland Enrichment repeated as titlist Monday in the 23rd annual event at Twin Lakes Park, Hempfield and Unity.

The team of Evan Zajdel, Emily Deemer, Amanda Wilson, Susanna Deemer and Michael Pacacha will move on to the state competition May 19-20 at Penn State University, State College. The team was ninth last year at that level.

Under a crystal blue sky Monday, one could hardly tell about 70 students representing nine high schools and the home-schooled team were scattered around the banks of the Upper Lake.

In groups of three to five, they evaluated tubes of lake water, identified species and took written tests.

So intent on winning every possible point at each of the five testing stations, the students' voices were easily drowned out by the wildlife.

At the forestry station, the one thought by many to be the most difficult, the competitors were asked to identify trees and measure the board foot volume (the amount of wood usable for lumber).

They also identified an invasive species and its impact on the forest and took a 30-question multiple choice test.

"We get guidelines from Harrisburg and then localize it," said Mike DiRinaldo, of the Bureau of Forestry, the coordinating agency for the forestry station.

Coordinated by the Powdermill Nature Reserve, of Rector, the aquatics station featured testing the dissolved oxygen and acidity of the lake water and identifying a couple of fish from the same genus.

"If there is too much [oxygen] in the water, it will kill the fish. If there's too little, they can't live," explained Bryannan Santo, a junior at Greensburg Central Catholic.

"This was actually the closest competition I've seen," said Tony Quadro, forester and technical program director for the conservation district.

The competition at the state level will be tougher, when about 60 teams representing Pennsylvania counties meet.

Yough came in second. Its team was made up of Neil Trout, Christine Barrett, Jenna Johnstone, Cady Muziani and Sam Greenawalt.

Taking third was the Kiski Area High team of Laura Beskitt, Eric Hrovoski, Bryan Learn, Matt Miller and Patrick Wilkinson. Kiski also had a second team in the competition.

Each member of the state championship team will receive a $1,000 scholarship; second-place finishers will win $500 scholarships; those on the third-place team will each receive a $300 scholarship.

The state winners will then move on to the Canon Envirothon at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff from July 20 to Aug. 3.