John Hastings

John joined ICL shortly after moving to Idaho nearly three decades ago. He brings an educator’s perspective to his passion for conservation. John has written curriculum objectives and assessments for the State Department of Education in the field of Natural Resources Management. He currently teaches Dual Credit Plant and Soil Science classes for the University of Idaho and Advanced Placement Environmental Science. He has engaged his students in many local and regional citizen science projects, including the rare carnivore study completed by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, riparian restoration projects in north Idaho on both the Pack River Delta and Clark Fork River Delta, and establishing a Monarch Butterfly habitat on the Sandpoint High School campus. He was named the Environmental Educator of the Year for Idaho in 2015. He considers the number of students taking up the cause of conservation in their professional or avocational lives his greatest success as an educator. 

John spent many years guiding canoe trips and dog sled trips into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in his home state of Minnesota, and has worked as a mountaineering instructor in Wyoming. He continues to excite students to pursue outdoor adventures.

John and his wife Nancy founded All Seasons Garden Center in Sandpoint, one of the largest retail garden centers in the region and have operated it for 25 years. John is also active in other ways in the community, serving as chairman of the Sandpoint Planning and Zoning Commission, speaking at local churches on a spiritual response to environmental stewardship, and serving as the Quality Assurance scientist for the Lake Pend Oreille Waterkeeper.