Flathead Audubon Society gives two awards for the best Conservation-themed Science projects presented at the Flathead County Schools Science Fair. This year, Conservation Educator Denny Olson presented the awards to (a) 6th-grader Keanu Ng of Kalispell Middle School, for “Ocean Acidification, a project on the effects of ocean acidification on climate change, and (b) 8th-grader Jakob Ritzdorf of Kalispell Middle School, for “Effectiveness of eDNA to Find Distribution of Invasive Species”, which uses small amounts of DNA in stream water to detect invasive snapping turtles, and may have implications for detecting invasive bullfrogs as well.

Special thanks to FAS Board Member Cory Davis for assisting in the judging!

Congratulations to these students and hundreds of others who each year restore our faith in the future of evidence-based research. Nice going!