NEW HARTFORD — Matteo Viti, a sixth-grade student from Julie Fornino’s class at Bradley Elementary School in New Hartford, has been named the grand prize winner of the Oneida County Conservation Education Days 2022 Poster Contest, according to an announcement by the contest committee.

The committee presented his awards at his school earlier this month.

Posters were selected for superior artistic presentation of one or more of the conservation ideas presented this past year in person at Oneida County 4-H Conservation Education Days at Delta Lakes State Park. Additional consideration was given to the content of the caption explaining the idea of the poster, the announcement said.

The judges for the contest were representatives from the Oneida County Conservation Education Day Committee from such organizations as Cornell Cooperative Extension of Oneida County, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and The Federated Sportsmen’s Clubs of Oneida County.

The Oneida County Youth Bureau was a major sponsor of this event.

Viti received a fishing package valued at $100 from the Federated Sportsmen’s Clubs of Oneida County and a framed wildlife print by wildlife artist Tom Yacovella, an outdoorsman and wildlife artist who passed away in January 2018 — awarded in his memory by the Central New York Youth Fishing Educators.

Additional prizes of a 1-year subscription to the NYS Conservationist magazine were given to two winners chosen from each of the classrooms who entered the contest from the following schools: Bradley, ER Hughes, and Myles schools, New Hartford; Stokes Elementary School in Rome; J.D. George Elementary School in Verona; Clinton Elementary School; Boonville Elementary School; and New York Mills Elementary School. Subscriptions were donated by the Federated Sportsman’s Clubs of Oneida County, Inc.