Jackson, Mississippi – Butch Bailey, a forester and Extension Instructor at the Mississippi State University Extension in Purvis, has been named the recipient of the 2025 Project Learning Tree (PLT) Leadership in Education award. Bailey has been honored for his work promoting environmental stewardship through education for the past 20 years.
PLT, an initiative of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), 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.
“Butch Bailey is Mr. PLT in Mississippi! His passion for forestry and natural resources education is contagious, and his commitment to PLT and Teachers Conservation Workshops is unmatched. Butch has been involved with teaching PLT workshops in Mississippi since 2004 and has been a leader for our Teachers Conservation Workshops since 2006,” said Lauren Hawkins, Communications Director and former interim Mississippi PLT State Coordinator at the Mississippi Forestry Association. “By taking educators on outdoor adventures to see PLT materials used in exciting ways, he makes learning fun and is a major reason for educators choosing to take our workshops more than once.”
Over the last 20 years, Butch has taught over 1,000 educators, sharing his passion for trees and bringing energy and enthusiasm that makes participants excited to learn how to incorporate forestry and natural resources education in their classrooms and beyond. In his career serving as an extension forester for Mississippi State University Extension, he connects with landowners, loggers, foresters, and the public about the importance of forests. In addition to volunteering his time to lead PLT workshops and Teachers Conservation Workshops, Butch teaches Boy Scout Merit Badge days and served as the Mississippi Forestry Association’s 2023 president.
“When you have someone who loves educating others, coupled with a passion for forests and our environment, it makes for a wonderful learning experience. Butch is a true champion of PLT, weaving his years of experience as a forester into his teaching,” says Josh Brankman, VP of Education at SFI/PLT. “We are pleased to honor Butch for leadership in environmental education in Mississippi. He has inspired so many educators, college students, and young people to be stewards of the environment.”
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 quality of life that depends on it.
Bailey, along with Angela Bartholomay, Associate Professor of Science at Dakota College in Bottineau, and Susan Cox, Conservation Education Coordinator for the USDA Forest Service, Eastern Region, was honored at the 2025 PLT Annual Conference in Clemson, South Carolina, from March 10-14.
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.
About Mississippi Forestry Association
Mississippi Forestry Association's vision is to serve as the "Voice of Forestry" in Mississippi. MFA’s mission is leading diverse groups to promote landowner rights, environmental stewardship, member prosperity, and community understanding. MFA members and staff work to accomplish the mission by conducting public affairs, communication, and education programs that will foster better understanding and appreciation of conservation, development, and use of forestland and resources. To learn more, visit www.msforestry.net.
