Anyone who knows Talladega County Board of Education member Johnny Ponder can speak to his passion when it comes to issues involving conservation and nature.

He was named Conservation Educator of the Year at the Alabama Wildlife Federation’s Governor’s Conservation Achievement Awards. The awards ceremony was held Aug. 6 at the Marriott Hotel in Prattville.

“It was a big honor for me,” Ponder said. “The award was actually presented by the governor.”

Ponder said he believed several teachers in the School System began a letter-writing campaign to get his name under consideration for the award.

According to the AWF, the Conservation Educator of the Year is awarded 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.

He was among several other people honored in other conservation leadership categories. The purpose of the Governor’s Conservation Achievement Awards program is to promote leadership by example and, in turn, increase conservation of the natural resources of the state of Alabama — its wildlife, forests, soils, water and air.

Ponder said he wants to make sure children in public education are still able to understand from where natural resources come and how they should be wisely used.

“There’s a lot of good science-based information available for our kids,” Ponder said. “A lot of kids don’t know where a 2-by-4 comes from or where a tomato or milk come from. They are things they just see in nursery rhymes. We have to make sure they have their facts right about these things before they have to make decisions involving those resources.”

Ponder has been one of the leaders in pushing the development of the educational wildlife themes in Munford schools where students are nearly constantly able to check out information about the natural world around them from exhibits in almost any area in the school.

Munford schools continue to add new pieces to their environmental theme, such as an outdoor amphitheater, outdoor classrooms and the building of wetlands around the schools.

Ponder said he hopes the School System will one day be able to hire a systemwide environmental teacher who could incorporate special lessons on nature in science classes across the system.

He believes the educational wildlife theme is already having an effect on the students at Munford Elementary.

“Our science scores at Munford Elementary are going up through the roof,” Ponder said. “We have to work to engage a lot of these kids. We have to compete with video games and computers and stuff teachers haven’t had to deal with in the past.”

Contact Brandon Fincher at bfincher@dailyhome.com.