De Kort honored with conservation award

Linda de Kort recently was honored with a Flathead Audubon Lifetime of Conservation Achievements Recognition March 9 at the organization’s monthly meeting.

The award recognized de Kort for her lifelong dedication to educating students of all ages about the natural world, her commitment to connecting young people with their local natural places and local birds, and instilling in them a conservation ethic. She taught biology at Flathead High School for 24 years, where she sent her students outdoors to learn through observation and experiment. Thousands of the adults in the Flathead Valley were students in Mrs. de Kort’s biology classes, and came to understand and value the natural places and wildlife of the Flathead Valley as they carried out the biology field studies.

After she retired in 2000, de Kort started and shaped Flathead Audubon’s innovative Conservation Education program, and is still a volunteer teacher for the program. She also founded the West Valley Naturalists Group, and continues to be its primary organizer. In addition, while traveling in such places as Mexico, Panama, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, and Costa Rica, she took bird education to local villages, trained nature guides, and assisted in conservation projects and biological research.

A detailed account of Mrs. de Kort’s work is available on the Flathead Audubon website, www.flatheadaudubon.org.