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Thirty-one Arkansas schools, ranging from Pre-K to 12th grade, have been designated as a School of Conservation Leadership for 2026-29 and were honored by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s Education Division on Thursday at the AGFC’s Little Rock headquarters. Many schools sent representatives who nearly filled the auditorium, while others from around the state joined the ceremony online.
“Every single grade level earned a designation,” Derek Ratchford, the AGFC’s Outdoor Education Initiative Manager, said. “It proves conservation education has a place no matter how old they are, no matter what types of learning environments, no matter what types of classes you offer. It fits, it’s impactful and it matters.”
Schools receiving School of Conservation Leadership designation in the agency’s Cohort 2 were: Izard County Consolidated and Loblolly Pine School (Malvern), Pre-K category; Clear Spring (Eureka Springs) and Joshua Academy (Van Buren), K-12 schools; Asbell, Bernice Young, Don Roberts, East Pointe, Forest Heights Stem Academy, Hunt, Kirby, Linda Childress Knapp, North Little Rock 6, Root, Sonora, Terry, Valley Springs, Walker and Watson elementary schools; Valley Springs Middle; Wynne and Clinton junior highs; and ALLPS School of Innovation (Fayetteville), Bentonville, Clinton, Cossatot River, Delta Preparatory (Blytheville), Melbourne, Norfork, Perryville and Thaden School (Bentonville) high schools.
In the first year for achieving School of Conservation Education designation, 21 schools went through the program. Cohort 2 drew interest from 65 schools, with 56 reaching the site-visit stage, and from that, 31 achieved the designation.
“What I often get asked,” Ratchford said, “what about the ones that didn’t (receive designation)? The reality is, they all built a very strong foundation of conservation education that only needs to be grown. They’ve built something special that we’re going to continue supporting as they continue trying to build it. They’re not going away. “So we’re going to continue pouring into those classrooms and those students, but we also want to celebrate (this group) for the level of commitment made to that.”
The program grew in one year from nine counties represented to 25 of Arkansas’s 75 counties in 2025-26, and each region of the state produced new designees. Every type of school — from virtual to public, private or charter — was represented. However, Ratchford said the biggest story at the culmination of this second cohort was that Arkansas went from not having a conservation education program two years ago “to impacting 33,709 students.”
He called it “amazing” and thanked the newly designated schools for “telling that story.”
Mary Beth Hatch, the AGFC’s chief of education, said, “We continue to work with groups and organizations, colleges even out of state, that say ‘I did a little research and a little looking at it, and I don’t see any other states doing this.’ They’re not. It’s not just a brag, but there truly are no other states in the United States of America that are being this intentional when it comes to conservation and outdoor recreation in the K-12 education system.”
She and Ratchford both acknowledged that the program has much room to grow. For Cohort 3 and the 2026-27 school year, Ratchford said, 100 schools applied to implement a conservation education program (applications closed two months earlier than planned); the AGFC is transitioning five staff coordinator positions to support the growth and professional development needs of the schools; and 20 previously designated schools have been offered the opportunity to serve as “mentor” schools for the 100 applicants for 2026-27. Access to outdoor recreation costs money, Hatch said, and the program receives funds through the Arkansas Game and Fish Foundation, the sale of conservation license plates and from the state’s conservation sales tax, which allows the agency to provide experiences, equipment and supplies at little or no cost to the schools.
“We want to remove as many barriers as we can to outdoor recreation and conservation education,” Hatch said.
Outdoor education can range from a 45-minute field trip to a nature center, to in-class demonstrations with live animals such as alligators and barred owls, to barge trips down the Arkansas River, to helping clean streams or put on fishing derbies. The opportunities to offer conservation education are many, the leaders say.
Ratchford said to the representatives of the newly designated schools: “To get to travel around to your classrooms, that makes me proud. The creativity in the way you implemented these requirements was really cool to see. We have some powerful and extremely talented educators in this state. Seeing archery turned into art projects and abstract art and kids creating their own new tips for archery — that’s something I would have never dreamed of. We can learn a lot from the creativity of our educators.”
Along with banners to take back to their schools noting their designation, the representatives were presented “mallard investigation boxes,” as Hatch described them — containers for teaching students about wildlife and waterfowl courtesy of Five Oaks Lodge near Humphrey, owned by former AGFC Commissioner George H. Dunklin Jr. and operated by his daughter, Hillary.
Ratchford noted that the second Generation Conservation Summit, or GenCon — bringing together students, teachers, mentors and AGFC staff, along with many others from the outdoor world, for two days of outdoor education at the Hot Springs Convention Center and Bank OZK Arena — is scheduled for Nov. 4-5. The event is open to all Arkansas schools and even homeschooled students.
He also pointed out that conservation education in the schools is having an effect beyond the classroom.
“Your families were there for your programs,” he said. “What I really love about this story, it may be happening in the schools, but your families showed up for your fishing derbies. Your families were there for your programs. We impacted adults through this K-12 education program, and we impacted communities.”
