Mr Maher was recognised for his tireless efforts in revegetation, which has seen him collect, propagate and replant more than 50,000 native Australian seeds.
He took over the revegetation of the sand hill adjacent to the Wanganella wetland in 2002, and has been the sole contributor in re-establishing native shrubs and trees.
As a part of his work, Mr Maher has also installed nesting boxes on trees in the region, providing extra habitat to birdlife.
Although he was unable to attend the awards ceremony on Wednesday, Mr Maher’s wife Patricia provided a letter describing the honour he felt at being nominated, which was read by Cr Betts.
‘‘As anyone who has ever met Philip knows he is passionate about the environment, and nowhere more so than his own development. As well as running world famous birding tours, most notably at Wanganella, the Plains-wanderer and other plains species and where he has guided nearly 8000 birds over the last 40 years,’’ Cr Betts read.
‘‘He has established three regeneration sites within the Edward River local government area.
‘‘Over the last 30 years he has planted in excess of 50,000 local plant species, all grown from seed he’s collected and germinated and put in endless hours trying to keep plants alive during droughts that look like they would never end and put in countless hours monitoring and recording those sites for bird, butterfly and reptiles, which leaves for us a local natural environment.’’
