AFTER nearly two decades advocating for the environment in Bathurst, Tracy Sorensen has been presented the city's biggest award for environmentalists.
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Greening Bathurst's Ashley Bland presented her with the Jo Ross Memorial Award on Tuesday during Bathurst's Australia Day awards ceremony.
The award is named after former councillor Josephine Ross, who herself was a natural environmentalist with a passion for "green" issues.
"The Jo Ross award is also about recognition of and respecting the Earth and listening to the voices that we can't hear," Mr Bland said.
"... This award really goes for recognising those in the community who do speak for the environment and this year's recipient has done that admirably over a number of years.
"She moved to town in 2003 and, I guess like a lot of us, fell in love with the area and straight away thought that there was something here worth protecting."
Ms Sorensen was a founding member of the Bathurst Community Climate Action Network (BCCAN) and has worked with other groups around the city for the benefit of the environment.
She previously worked as a journalist at the Western Advocate and is a regular contributor to the newspaper's weekly Eco News column.
She is also a nationally-recognised author.
Although winning the Jo Ross Award as an individual, she felt it was really a group achievement.
"An award like this is very much a group award," she said. "Everything I've done, in terms of environmental work over the years, has been as part of different groups, particularly BCCAN and the River Yarners."
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Ms Sorensen also gave some of the credit to the Aboriginal community.
"I really want to acknowledge the Wiradyuri people of this area, who are probably the greatest environmentalists over time, and it has been an honour to work with some of them in the environmental campaigns that we've had over the years," she said.
