James J. Brett, 84, of Kempton, Berks County, who died on Friday, December 29, 2023 had a natural resource conservation career that spanned over 48 years in Pennsylvania and on a global scale.

He was recognized by the Department of Environmental Protection as one of the top environmental leaders of Pennsylvania. This is a special honor especially since he is the only living person on this list.

WeConservePA Profile

WeConservePA did this profile of Brett when they recognized him with their 2011 Lifetime Leadership Award--

Following a decade of teaching natural history in the public school system he moved on to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary where he developed the education program, established a premiere visitor center and founded the international intern program.

The international intern program grew from a fledgling effort in 1976 to an internationally recognized conservation education program under Jim’s leadership.

He remained at Hawk Mountain for 26 years, during which time Jim turned the sanctuary from small regional wildlife reserve to an organization of international significance and stature.

Following Jim’s departure from Hawk Mountain, and to help fund his Pennsylvania and global initiatives, he continued to plan and guide excursions throughout the world.

Proceeds from these trips, along with donations from generous benefactors, go to a special Jim Brett Global Conservation Education Fund.

This fund has supported international interns from Africa, Cuba, the Americas, Europe and Asia.

The once simple intern program has now grown into a full fledged grassroots education program that trains young people to be conservation leaders in their own countries.

Since 1976, over 155 students from 26 countries have graduated from the program at Hawk Mountain and the Pennsylvania Institute for Conservation Education; many have gone on to hold leadership roles, making a critical difference in land stewardship efforts in their home countries.

Jim left Hawk Mountain in 1996 to become the first Executive Director of the Ned Smith Center for Nature and the Arts, a position he held for three years until he was appointed by Governor Tom Ridge as the Commonwealth’s Senior Conservation Advisor.

During his tenure with the Governor he formed the Governor’s Youth Council for Sportsmen’s Concerns and Conservation.

Jim continued his conservation work with state government into Governor Rendell’s administration where he served as an assistant to the Secretary of Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.

His crowning achievement has been the founding and formation of the PA Institute for Conservation Education with colleague Michele Richards.

The Institute has received recognition from across the Commonwealth for its development of innovative natural history education and stewardship programs offered to a wide and diverse audience.

Jim serves as President of the organization and is very active in its leadership, development and educational programs.

He has extensive international experience including leading natural history safaris across the globe which support local conservation initiatives within Pennsylvania, serving on the Board of the African Nature Conservation Trust and life memberships in the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel and Endangered Wildlife Trust in South Africa and a Fellow in the Explorer’s Club.

His most recent project in Africa is involved with establishing migratory corridors for elephants between Tanzania and Mozambique.

On one of his recent travels to Africa, he discovered the oldest homo sapiens footprints in Africa. What is most poignant about the discovery is that it resulted in the protection of a habitat that supported over a million Lesser Flamingos, a threatened species.

Earlier in the year, Jim was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Kutztown University for his conservation education accomplishments through the International Global Wildlife Educational Internship Program as well as his work on wildlife heritage in the Commonwealth.

Jim Brett exemplifies conservation leadership and serves as an extraordinary role model for Pennsylvanians through his great work in environmental education and conservation and through his cultural understanding, in Pennsylvania, nationally and around the world.

The Pennsylvania Land Trust Association [now WeConservePA] is honored to recognize someone of Jim’s stature, who demonstrates such tremendous passion for our natural heritage, evident in his everyday actions and his lifetime dedication to conservation.

DEP 1998 Profile

On June 26, 1998, the Department of Environmental Protection published this profile of Jim Brett as part of its PA Environmental Leaders Series.

Jim Brett seems like the very definition of an unassuming man when you first meet him.

He was born in the Berks County community of Shillington on December 7, 1939, and now lives and works from his home in Kempton, near Hawk Mountain Sanctuary.

So just how did Jim Brett from Berks County, Pennsylvania, come to be on a first name basis with a naturalist like Jane Goodall and archaeologists Mary Leakey and her son Richard?

Well, that’s an interesting story and it involved traveling a little more than the 25 miles between Shillington and Kempton.

Jim Brett grew up in a home that prized knowledge and respect for people of all cultures.

His parents were actively involved in work that transcended cultural and ethnic lines and drew their children into these experiences.

There was really nothing else remarkable in his childhood, except perhaps having been close to the Updike family whose son John, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, is one of Shillington’s favorite sons.

In high school though he had the fortune to meet Rosalie Edge who, while he did not know it at the time, would have an important role to play in his future.

For a time Jim taught high school English and Biology in York County after graduating from Kutztown University, but in the late 1960s his career headed toward the environment.

In 1966, he founded the Oerwood Nature Center in York County and, here, he designed and constructed Pennsylvania’s first nature trail for the blind.

Oerwood was completely run by Jim’s high school Ecology Club who taught natural history to visitors from throughout the area.

He became a research biologist for an Ithaca-based aquatic consulting firm and was actively involved in building an aquatic database in connection with the Limerick nuclear power facility on the Schuylkill River near Pottstown, Pennsylvania.

But in 1971 a position opened up at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Berks County that seemed to fit Jim perfectly--  the first formal head of environmental education programs.

Hawk Mountain was founded in 1934 by Rosalie Edge as the world’s first safe haven for hawks and other birds of prey. It was also a place where students and bird lovers could come to watch and study the habits of these wonderful creatures.

Jim got the job and stayed on as curator of Hawk Mountain for 25 years.

During his time there he started a number of innovative programs, but one in particular— an international intern program—grew from a fledgling effort in 1976 to an internationally recognized conservation education program under Jim’s leadership.

The original idea was simple and began with students from colleges near Hawk Mountain, but the program soon expanded in scope and geography.

Through the program Jim brought a student or two a year from other countries to Hawk Mountain to learn environmental education and research techniques and in the process learn about birds of prey, Berks County and one another’s culture.

The international program started with students from Israel. As Jim developed an international network of contacts with other conservation organizations around the world, students began coming from Africa, the Americas, Europe and Asia.

As the exchange program grew beyond what Hawk Mountain alone could handle, Jim formed Naturecorp, an ecoadventure company that would allow individuals from throughout the United States to meet the students Jim trained in their native countries.

Following Jim’s departure from Hawk Mountain, and to help fund his global initiatives, he continued to plan and guide excursions throughout the world.

Proceeds from these trips, along with donations from generous benefactors, go to a special Jim Brett Global Conservation Education Fund.

The once simple intern program has now grown into a full fledged grassroots education program that trains young people to be conservation leaders in their own countries.

Two or three interns a year are brought to the United States through NatureCorp. to train in one of three tracks--  research, education and management of nature preserves.

The program lasts four or five months with students using several cooperating locations like the Pocono Environmental Education Center, the Wildlands Conservancy, the DCNR’s Nolde Forest Environmental Education Center, the Carbon County Environmental Education Center or the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. as a training ground.

Since 1976, over 150 students from 26 countries have graduated from the program at Hawk Mountain and Naturecorp and many have gone on to hold leadership roles in their home countries

Betti Loibooki came to the United States from Tanzania where she held the position of warden-in-charge of tourism in the Serengeti National Park. Betti now heads the entire tourism department for Tanzania’s national park system.

From Sicily came Anna Giordano to study education and bird of prey migration. Anna now spearheads the entire bird protection effort in Sicily and on the mainland of southern Italy.

Ernesto Saqui, a Maya Indian, also came to learn education and tourism and is now directing the Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve in Belize.

But the program has done more than train naturalists.

Jim proudly points to the fact that his conservation exchange program was the first to bring together an Arab and an Jew and a black and white South African student to study conservation and to live together – something that would have very seldom occurred in their homelands.

What will the future hold?

Jim plans to expand both the number of conservation students he brings to the United States and the countries from which they come, including expanding his work with Jane Goodall.

This year he is working with the staff at the Penn Woods Girl Scout Council in northeastern Pennsylvania and with social workers from the nomadic Maasai Tribe in Tanzania to teach senior high school girls about the Maasai culture.

The ultimate goal of this project is to develop an exchange program with the Maasai.

In his “spare time,” Jim took a temporary assignment as director of the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art in Millersburg, Dauphin County.

The center is dedicated to promoting environmental education through art and was founded on the memory and works of Ned Smith, the famous Pennsylvania wildlife artist who spent his entire life in Millersburg.

Jim Brett is yet another example of the major contributions Pennsylvanians continue to make to environmental protection, and in this case cultural understanding, in the United States and around the world.

Obituary & Celebration Of Life

A visitation for Brett will be held on Thursday, January 4, 2024 from 4:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. in Ludwick Funeral Homes and Cremation Care, Inc., 333 Greenwich Street, Kutztown, PA.

A Celebration of Life will take place on Saturday, January 27, 2024 at 4:00 p.m. at the Kempton Fire Company, 2461 PA-143, Kempton, PA.

In lieu of flowers, contributions can be made in James' memory to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, 1700 Hawk Mountain Road, Kempton, PA 19529 or Kempton Fire Company, P.O. Box 62, Kempton, PA 19529.

Click Here for the complete obituary.

[Posted: January 2, 2024]

1/8/2024