Adams County naturalist Jenny Richards named Ohio Environmental Educator of the Year

Blue Creek’s Jenny Richards has spent nearly three decades turning Shawnee State Park into a classroom, and Ohio is now recognizing her as one of its most influential environmental educators. The longtime naturalist with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources was named Environmental Educator of the Year by the Environmental Education Council of Ohio, a statewide honor that puts her work at the center of how southern Ohio families, students and visitors learn to read the land around them.

EECO presented Richards with its Outstanding Environmental Educator in the Field of Nonformal Education award on April 11, 2026, during the organization’s annual conference. The award honors a nonformal educator for outstanding contributions to environmental education in Ohio, and Richards was nominated by Sarah Mill. EECO says its awards committee reviews nominations each year, underscoring that the recognition is competitive and meant for educators whose impact reaches well beyond a single site or season.

Richards’ reach has done exactly that. Over 28 years, she has guided thousands of students, visitors and emerging naturalists through the Shawnee Forest region, teaching birding, wildflower identification, forest ecology and sensory-based forest immersion. Her work has translated ecological science into lived experience for children and adults moving through forests, wetlands and meadows, a model that matters in Adams County because it builds environmental literacy where people already spend their time: on trails, in parks and in the outdoors that define the region’s identity.

That local connection is part of what makes the honor resonate. Richards grew up in the same forest landscape she now interprets, and her background includes a geography degree from Ohio University and later study in natural resources at Hocking College. A 2022 Columbus Monthly feature described her as the Shawnee State Park naturalist known for love and curiosity, a fitting shorthand for the reputation she has built among families who know her as the “Loving Nature Lady.”

The award also reflects a larger public payoff. ODNR says its environmental education programs serve students, educators and the general public through topics ranging from Ohio’s plants and animals to geology and wetlands. At Shawnee State Park, that mission helps keep outdoor traditions alive, supports visitation to the park and surrounding forest, and gives local children a direct connection to the land they will inherit. For Adams County, Richards’ recognition is not just a personal milestone. It is proof that the county’s natural heritage still shapes how Ohio learns, explores and stays rooted.