A Roanoke activist has been honored for his work on a team that successfully fought against legislation to strip the state's citizen environmental boards of their authority.

Bill Tanger and 10 other members of the so-called "Green Team" received the Blue Ridge Award on Friday from the Virginia Conservation Network.

Members of the team organized grass-roots opposition to a bill in the General Assembly that would have transferred the powers of three state boards -- the Water Control Board, the Air Pollution Control Board and the Waste Management Board -- to a single political appointee, the director of the state's Department of Environmental Quality.

"It was such a great example of what we're all about -- environmentalists working together and pooling their energy and resources," said Nathan Lott, executive director of VCN, a coalition of state environmental groups.

Tanger is a business owner and chairman of Friends of the Rivers of Virginia.

Other members of the Green Team receiving the award were Robert Burnley of Richmond; Catharine Gilliam of Lexington; Lisa Guthrie of New Kent County; Dan Holmes of Culpeper; Caleb Jaffe of Charlottesville; Marsha Merrell of Richmond; Shelton Miles of Campbell County; Tayloe Murphy of Mount Holly; Sallie Sebrell of Suffolk; and Joseph Tannery of Richmond.

At its conference in Richmond, VCN also honored Larry Schweiger, president of the National Wildlife Federation, and U.S. Sen. John Warner, R-Va.