Michael Barger

Board of Directors

Keep Arkansas Beautiful | 2024-2026

Michael has over 20 years of environmental education experience in national parks across the U.S. with a focus on visiting school groups and now having settled back home working for Keep Arkansas Beautiful as the Education Coordinator. His professional journey has helped interpret the natural world to tens of thousands of students from floating labs off the coast of California to the grasslands of Colorado to snow covered peaks of Alaska. As an avid storyteller and outdoor enthusiast, he is thrilled to be joining the conservation efforts in my home state of Arkansas. He was also active on the City of Denver, Colorado’s first Public Arts Docent team and has always had an interest in the arts. Experience guiding the public into the wilds of America have provided him the medical training as a Wilderness First Responder. Since returning to Arkansas: he has completed training as an Arkansas Master Naturalist. When not working on exotic house plants, he may easily be found exploring the wilds of Arkansas with his family from Little Rock.  As a proponent of volunteerism, he has proudly served in conservation efforts ranging from insect curation for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science to fieldwork helping to reintroduce the Black-Footed Ferret of North America with the Smithsonian Institute to litter cleanups across the country. As a 7th generation Arkansan, he is very excited to meet many more educators state-wide that share our passion!