FAIRHOPE, Ala. — The Alabama Wildlife Federation (AWF) has announced that Eastern Shore resident Margaret Sedlecky will be honored Aug. 8 in Prattville as Conservation Educator of the Year during the organization’s annual Governor’s Conservation Achievement Awards (GCAA). The formal banquet, sponsored by Alabama Power and PowerSouth Energy Cooperative, will begin at 6 p.m. at the Marriott Legends at Capitol Hill.

AWF spokesperson Kimberly Moon noted Sedlecky, the education coordinator at the Weeks Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve, is being honored in her category, “For outstanding contribution by a professional or volunteer, classroom teacher or scout troop leader, firm, or organization to conservation education, whether in the classroom or by other means. The scope of the effort and its effectiveness are of major consideration.”

The awards are considered my many the most prestigious conservation honor in the state of Alabama. Moon said they go back more than 30 years.

“The purpose is to promote leadership by example,” she said. According to AWF literature, that in turn increases conservation of our natural resources including wildlife, forests, soils, water and air.

Sedlecky said, “It is a very big honor because I know some people who have gotten the award in the past, and I’m in pretty stellar company. “As a teacher, you don’t often have those moments when people and former students come up and say ‘thank you.’ There’s not a big monetary reward (in teaching). You put in long hours because you love what you do. It’s nice that somebody recognizes and appreciates what you do.”

Sedlecky is an environmental resource teacher for the Baldwin County Board of Education, and is stationed at the reserve. The cooperative effort provides K-12 students more opportunities to learn about the coastal environment than they otherwise might have.

“I have a unique job, from the classroom to being assigned to the Weeks Bay Reserve,” she said. “I went from around 150 students per year to around 3,500 per year.”

Sedlecky has called the reserve home for 13 years. Prior to that, she taught science, biology and marine biology in the classroom for 10 years in Perdido, Fairhope and Robertsdale. She was also an adjunct instructor at Faulkner State Community College for nine years, teaching biology and zoology at night. All together, she has been an educator for nearly a quarter-century.

Now, some of Sedlecky’s students come from as far away as Mobile County and Escambia County, Fla. She also assembles age-appropriate resource boxes for other Baldwin County teachers to borrow.

The boxes package learning materials by theme or subject, including the study of spiders, insects, bats and sea life. They might contain puppets, books and videos, and are mainly used in elementary classrooms.

Sedlecky said not every class can travel to the reserve in an era of budget cuts and rising gas prices, so she uses the resources to fill the gap.

“I try to help teachers if they call and ask for information,” she said. “I try to provide it.” And those who are able to take their classes to the reserve encounter a classroom unlike any other, where displays and the natural environment are used in tandem to offer students the ultimate in environmental education.

Sedlecky pointed out, “Kindergartners do different hands-on activities than third graders. High school students take part in labs, seining and water quality testing. We try to do things with them that they would not or could not do in the school. We try to get them in the field.”

In addition to her other work at Weeks Bay, Sedlecky has pioneered programs that help bring students and the environment together, including the successful Grasses in Classes. The educational experience involves mostly middle and high school students growing and later planting various marsh grasses and sea oats, combined with classroom instruction on their importance to the chain of life.

Sedlecky’s journey has been quite an experience. Sometimes the education process throws a curve ball, and the teacher becomes the student.

“We had a dehydrated snake. I’m not a snake lover, but I got the job of finding out what to do to rehydrate the snake,” she said. Sedlecky learned that Pedialyte, the electrolyte solution designed to replace fluids and minerals in children, could also be used to bring the snake back from the brink.

Knowing the liquid needed to be kept around 88 degrees Fahrenheit, she at first heated it before pouring it in the snake’s 10-gallon aquarium. After some experimentation, she found she could use a heating pad under the tank to keep the temperature constant. The snake recovered.

“I never thought I would be doing certain things like this,” Sedlecky said. “Working at the reserve is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.”

Other GCAA recipients this year include: Conservationist of the Year, James H. Griggs, Fairhope; Wildlife Conservationist of the Year, Dr. James B. Armstrong, Auburn; Forest Conservationist of the Year, Lamar and Felicia Dewberry, Lineville; Soil Conservationist of the Year, Dee River Ranch — Annie Dee and Mike Dee, Aliceville; Water Conservationist of the Year, Florala Utilities Board, Florala; Air Conservationist of the Year, General Electric Dothan Motor Plant, Dothan; Conservation Organization of the Year, Coosa County Forestry Planning Committee, Rockford; Conservation Communicator of the Year, Wildlife Trends, Auburn; Youth Conservationist of the Year, Anna Vines, Sylacauga; Conservation Enforcement Officer of the Year, Sergeant Eddie Stripling, Fayette; Hunter Safety Instructor of the Year, Terry R. Love, Opelika; Judicial Conservationist of the Year, Judge Jerry Batts, Athens; Legislative Conservation of the Year, Rep. Thomas Jackson, Rep. James Fields and Sen. Ted Little.

Tickets to the banquet are $40, and are available for purchase by contacting AWF at (800) 822-9453. For more information, visit www.alabamawildlife.org.