The former, along with Purlewaugh's Juleen Young, has been nominated for the NSW Environmental Citizen of the Year award, while the students have been jointly nominated for the youth version of the prize.

Mr Truman's selection is further acknowledgement of his efforts, having won the inaugural Gunnedah Environmental Citizen of the Year gong in January.

A well-known figure around the community, much of his work is completed through his role as a member of the Gunnedah Urban Landcare Group, which he has been a part of for more than 20 years.

He has accomplished a lot with the group since joining when he first moved to the town, including some noteworthy recent and current projects.

The reestablishment of vegetation corridors for the benefit of koalas, rehabilitation of the Cushans and Porcupine reserves and involvement in the community garden have been focuses of Mr Truman.

He said it was incredible to be in the running for such an award, and was thankful for Gunnedah Shire Council for nominating him.

"It's good to be recognised for the state one and I was having a look through the website at the other nominees and it's really inspiring when you see what other people are doing around the state as well," he said.

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"It's such a diverse range of things, our stuff is very focused on revegetation of urban areas and most of what I do is very urban focused, but there's all sorts of things that people are doing which is great."

He is also passionate about education, and wants to make sure that others are able to carry the environmental torch in the future.

The 'Go Wild in Gunnedah' program is something else he is involved in, which teaches kids how to do activities such as kayaking, bird watching, spotlighting and tree planting.

Mr Truman is in a good position to be passing on knowledge, given he holds an environmental science degree.

Speaking of education, the Coonabarabran High School's D7 support unit class has been busy with its recycling program. Much like Mr Truman, its nomination has come off the back of years of good work.

For more than ten years, the class has taken responsibility for the school's recycling and students have developed a strong interest in sustainability.

They complete a number of tasks every week, including picking up any recyclables left around the school and ensuring they are put in the right bins, and maintaining the learning space garden.

Given students who are placed in the class usually stay in it throughout their senior schooling, there are a mix of ages which means knowledge is constantly being passed down to new arrivals.

Support unit head teacher Sharon Rankmore said the students take great pride in what they do, and the school has big plans for what they can accomplish

"Recycling is a very basic start for everyone so the next step we're going to take with that class and the other two [support unit] classes is that we're going to attempt to set up a food composting program," she said.

"We'll have special containers where the students will put their scraps in and then we'll collect it every day and compost it and use it in our learning garden and other gardens as well."

As for Ms Young, she is an active member of the Country Women's Association, NSW Farmers, the Warrumbungle economic and tourism committee and the Northern Inland NPWS regional advisory committee.

She is also passionate about the protection of farmland, according to the NSW Environmental Citizen of the Year website.

"She has travelled throughout the state to study native vegetation, researched pest animal issues and fought to protect ground water on the Murray Darling Scheme," it said.

"Juleen has also battled at local and state levels to protect farmland from mining efforts that would affect the integrity of water and farming land."

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