Olaf Ribeiro was honored with the 2014 Environmentalist Award by the Association of Bainbridge Communities.

The award cup was given to Ribeiro on Nov. 15 at the association’s 13th Environmental Conference on the Future of Trees on Bainbridge Island. Dale Spoor, president of the Association of Bainbridge Communities, presented the award.

Ribeiro, a former research plant pathologist, is the author and co-author of two plant pathology textbooks that are presently used in more than 80 countries. He has been involved in improving the health of mature trees throughout the U.S. and overseas since 1985.

He has helped renovate the Juanita Woodlands in Kirkland, and with the help of volunteers planted 3,000 trees in the woodlands toward a goal of planting 10,000 trees.

Over the past few years he has distributed more than 2,000 trees to Bainbridge Islanders and helped volunteers plant 500 trees on both sides of Highway 305.

His work saving trees has earned widespread praise, and has been acknowledged on the NBC Today Show, in the Wall Street Journal and on Seattle’s Channel 5 Evening Magazine.

Ribeiro’s awards include Honorary Citizenship in 1972 by the Mayor of Morgantown, West Virginia; certificate for outstanding volunteerism by Washington Governor Booth Gardner in 1988; an education award by the International Society of Arboriculture; and an award by the Consul General of Japan for saving cherry trees.

He is also featured in the book “In Praise of Island Stewards,” and is presently the president of the Murden Cove Preservation Association.