By PLT Staff

Rudy Schafer, the founder of Project Learning Tree, passed away last September.  He had dedicated his life’s work to environmental education.  At the time of his death, Rudy was working on his memoirs “For Kids, the Land, and the Future,” an excerpt of which was published recently in Forest History Today, a publication of the Forest History Society.  View and download the article “Planting the Seed: Perspectives from A Project Learning Tree Pioneer.”

Rudy was committed to teaching young people “how to think, not what to think” about complex environmental issues.  In the early 1970s, Rudy brought together educators, conservationists, industry, and government agencies responsible for natural resources in 13 states, to found the Western Regional Environmental Education Council.  The Council started Project Learning Tree, an innovative program that teaches young people about the environment by getting them to think about their role and relationship with the environment.  PLT was so effective it inspired the formation of other environmental education programs based on the PLT model, including Project WILD in 1983 and Project WET in 1992.

Rudy had requested that any remembrances could be contributions to PLT.  Along with his loving family, we’ve established the Rudy Schafer Memorial Fund to honor and celebrate his life’s work.  If you would like to make a memorial contribution to PLT, please download our donation form.

Rudy said that “all of us involved in PLT share a great tradition.  We do important things for students, the land, and for the future, and we’re justly proud of our accomplishments.”  Rudy’s impact lives on in all of us involved in Project Learning Tree.