By CAITLIN STEWART

Special to the Express

LAKE PLEASANT - After a morning of deliberation, judges Elizabeth Mangle, manager of the Hamilton County Soil and Water Conservation District, and volunteer Kathy Stewart chose the winners of the 2011 Conservation Field Day fifth-grade essay and sixth-grade poster contests.

This year’s countywide first place essay contest winner is Joyellen Trezise of Lake Pleasant Central School, and the countywide first place poster contest winner is Maria Black of Long Lake Central School. Their names were engraved on plaques to be displayed at their schools.

Students from six area schools participated in the 32nd Annual Lynn Galusha Memorial Conservation Field Day at the SWCD’s Nature Trail here Sept. 22. They listened carefully to the presenters while jotting down notes at stations including What Bear Goes Where, Fish Morphology, Light Bulb Comparison, Tree Identification, Conservation Construction and Follow That Drop.

Eighty-eight students participated in this year’s essay and poster contests, illustrating what they learned at their favorite station. Judging was no easy task.

“These students are the future generation of conservation stewards,” said Mangle. “When I review their posters and essays, it amazes me to see what they now view differently because of what was learned during the event.”

Students were awarded certificates and ribbons for school and countywide first, second and third place standings, as well as certificates of merit.

Visit www.hamiltoncountyswcd.com to view the Conservation Field Day slide show.

THE WINNING ESSAY

Water is a very valuable, priceless resource! Did you ever think that a little drop of water can go through a whole cycle? Well, you’ll see in just a second!

The water cycle is called the Hydrologic Cycle. Ice and heat makes a liquid. Liquid and heat makes a gas. Gas and cold makes condensation. Condensation precipitates and is a liquid. Liquid and cold makes ice which freezes. Then heat starts the process over again.

The first thing that happens is evaporation. This is when a liquid turns to a gas. Then condensation happens. Condensation is when the vapor forms into a cloud. Next is precipitation which is snow, rain, sleet or hail falling from the clouds in the sky.

Then something called a surface runoff happens. A surface runoff is when water flows over a surface of a lake and it infiltrates, or goes into, the ground and is called ground water.

The last thing that happens is transpiration. Transpiration is when the plants give off the vapor or let it go through the plants pores. The water gathers back into lakes, rivers, and streams. The Hydrologic Cycle repeats over and over again. It never stops.

Even though the cycle never stops, you should still conserve water because not everyone in the world gets fresh, clean water like we do. Seventy five percent of earth is water and two percent is ice. But only one percent of water is usable by us.

So the more you save, the more everyone in the world will have fresh, clean water like we do. Also, if you throw garbage in the lakes, they can get polluted and we can’t drink polluted water because we can get sick! So don’t pollute the water!!!

Isn’t that really cool? Can you believe how many steps one tinny drop of water goes through? I never thought about that before Conserva-tion Field Day.

Joyellen Trezise,

Lake Pleasant

Central School