2026 Conservation Poster Contest Results
Thank you to all the schools, teachers, and especially the students who participated in this year’s National Association of Conservation Districts annual poster contest: Soil. Where it all Begins. We had students representing 79 classrooms and 21 schools, with over 680 posters submitted. It was exciting to see so many students communicating their ideas about soil and its role in supporting so many aspects of life.
We would also like to thank our four poster contest judges, Matt Boucher (Maine State Soil Scientist, Maine DACF), Cooper Funk (Farmer and Owner, Dooryard Farm), Lily Gallager (Education Coordinator and Technician, Androscoggin Valley SWCD), and Morganne Price (Medomak Regional Stewardship Manager, Midcoast Conservancy). Judges carefully evaluated the conservation message, visual effectiveness, and originality of each poster to select category winners, category honorable mentions, class winners, and class honorable mentions. See an explanation of awards here.
Check out the Category Winners and Full Results.
Category K-1 Category Winner:
Jace Krah, Great Salt Bay Community School
Category 2-3 Category Winner:
Juniper Carlson, Ashwood Waldorf School
Category 4-6 Category Winner:
Clodagh McQuillen, Great Salt Bay Community School
Category 4-6 Category Mention:
Page Duffy, Warren Community School
Congratulations, Category Winners and Category Honorable Mention!
Full Results
Including Classroom Winners and Classroom Honorable Mentions
See a list of all selected class winners, class honorable mentions, category winners, and category honorable mentions below. See Explanation of Awards for more information on the judging process and award designations. Click here if you have difficulty viewing.
Scans of All Winning Posters
Scans of all selected class winners, class honorable mentions, category winners, and category honorable mentions will be posted below following our Tuesday, March 24 Flatbread Pizza Fundraiser and Poster Contest Celebration. See Explanation of Awards for more information on the judging process and award designations.
Posters are split into three judging categories: Grades K-1, Grades 2-3, and Grades 4-6. Posters are judged on the following criteria: conservation message, visual effectiveness, originality, and universal appeal.
Explanation of Awards
Category Designations
Category Winner: A Category Winner is the best overall poster in a given category. The Category Winner is chosen from the pool of Class First Place Winners in the respective category. Category Winners receive a conservation and education-minded prize and continue to the State Level Conservation Poster Contest.
Category Honorable Mention: A Category Honorable Mention is a poster that deserves special recognition amongst the pool of Class First Place Winners.
Class Designations
Class First Place Winner: Given to a student in a class with a stand-out poster. This award is only given to one student in a given classroom. Class First Place Winners are entered into a pool from which Category Winners and Category Honorable Mentions will be chosen. If a class did not receive a First Place Winner, judges decided that no poster in that class would have been competitive in the pool for Category Winner. An honorable mention would be chosen instead.
Note that some multi-grade classrooms have multiple class first place winners due to their students being in multiple poster contest categories (for example, a Grades 1-2 classroom might have a Class First Place Winner (K-1) and a Class First Place Winner (2-3). Some teachers may also instruct more than one class (for example, multiple science classes) and subsequently may receive a First Place Class Winner for each class taught.
Class Honorable Mention: Given to a student whose poster was competitive but did not win Class First Place Winner. Sometimes given to multiple students in a single classroom.
Additional Information
If no winner or honorable mention was chosen for your class, it means that an insufficient number of posters were submitted for the class (usually this means just 1-3 posters submitted). It may also mean that you failed to ensure your students included the poster contest theme Soil. Where it all Begins on the poster.
If only one class winner was chosen for a group of multiple classes you teach, it is because the homeroom was not consistently included on the back of each poster, making it necessary to judge the posters as a group.