BOWRAL resident and environmental scientist Rick Morse has been inducted as a member into the general division of the Order of Australia.
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Mr Morse AM has been recognised for significant service to environmental management through erosion and sediment control practices, and to professional associations.
Before 1989 Mr Morse worked for the NSW Soil Conservation Service.
He said while rural soil conservation practises were good, mining, industrial, highways and residential practices were not being well cared for.
"The land was being polluted because of erosion and there was not much happening to prevent it - it was window dressing," Mr Morse said.
He said if he couldn't make a difference within the system he would do it without. The environmental scientist started up his own company with an engineer as his business partner, Geoff McVey.
The two men co-founded the Australasian chapter of the International Erosion Control Association in 1993 and Mr Morse was the director until 2000.
Conferences were, and still are, held annually to highlight what can be done to control erosion.
"It worked out very well, with the EPA in attendance things started happening," Mr Morse said.
Mr Morse wrote the first edition of the Blue Book, which was released in 1994.
It is referred to as 'the bible' on sediment and erosion control practices for NSW and South East Queensland and the fourth edition was released in 2004.
A series of one to five day training courses based on the book were introduced and are still held today.
The EPA strongly recommends local councils adopt the blue book and most do.
"We influenced legislation and came up with a certification program with has trained several thousand people in NSW and almost as many in Queensland," Mr Morse said.
He said the award was an acknowledgement to him and those who he had worked with that the community recognised that what they were doing was a good thing.
"I'm especially grateful to my wife and Geoff McVey who both allowed me to get out and do these things," Mr Morse said.
"I may be the vessel or the catalyst but there is a long list of people involved in what we've achieved and I see this as an award for everyone associated.
"It's also recognition that the government recognises the importance of erosion and sediment control."
