North Dakota Educator Awarded for Environmental Education Impact

Project Learning Tree (PLT), an initiative of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, is an award-winning education program that advances environmental awareness, forest literacy, and green career pathways, using trees and forests as windows on the world. The Leadership in Education award recognizes educators who make significant contributions in their state to PLT and youth environmental education.

“Hank LaBore is a pillar in the North Dakota Project Learning Tree program. He is dedicated to increasing access to environmental education opportunities for rural and tribal students statewide,” said Beth Hill, the North Dakota PLT State Coordinator at the North Dakota Forest Service. “Hank is an incredible educator who has taught thousands of North Dakota students about the importance of our beautiful state and its natural resources and people.”

Since being trained in Project Learning Tree in 2001, Hank LaBore (of Bismarck) has been committed to providing connections to North Dakota through environmental education and traditional knowledge. In 2003, through the assistance of a Green Works grant, LaBore coordinated a tree planting ceremony where 20 trees were planted across the campus of United Tribes Technical College (UTTC) after being ceremonially blessed by tribal elders. He also helped organize an education day at UTTC alongside the North Dakota Forest Service. This event was for the local students on campus and highlighted the intersection of forest and natural resources education with traditional knowledge.

LaBore retired from teaching in 2016, but in retirement, his enthusiasm for environmental education hasn’t dimmed. He now visits rural classrooms twice a year as a guest presenter, traveling the entirety of the western two thirds of North Dakota to provide educational lessons and activities related to trees, watersheds, and indigenous connections. This outreach meets more classes where they are, reaching more than 1500 rural students each year. He uses his years of experience to teach these environmental education topics in innovative ways, and has modified a number of existing PLT lessons to highlight the state’s natural resources for the required 4th grade North Dakota Studies class.

“Hank’s passion for improving access to environmental education is one of the things that truly makes him stand out. Oftentimes, students in rural areas don’t have access to events or resources, so Hank travels to the heart of the communities where he helps connect students from rural and tribal schools to nature. He wants to ensure everyone can learn about and enjoy the environment,” says Beth Hill.

Since 1976, PLT has reached 145 million students and trained 765,000 educators to help students learn how to think, not what to think, about complex environmental issues. PLT helps develop students’ awareness, knowledge, and appreciation of the environment, builds their skills and ability to make informed decisions and encourages them to take personal responsibility for sustaining the environment and our quality of life that depends on it.

LaBore, along with Heather Bevis, an early childhood educator with St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, was honored at the 2026 PLT Annual Conference at the Arbor Day Farm in Nebraska March 23-25, 2026.

The recipients of PLT’s Leadership in Education were selected from nominees across the US for their leadership in implementing PLT programs and initiatives within their state, provincial, and local communities.