New York State Assembly Majority Leader Paul Tokasz received the 2001 Paul MacClennan Environmental Citizen of the Year Award in recognition of his lifelong efforts to preserve and protect the local and global environment.

Tokasz received the award, presented annually by the Erie County Environmental Education Institute, on August 24 in ceremonies held at the Buffalo State College's Great Lakes Center for Environmental Research and Education.

Tokasz, who earned his master's degree from Buffalo State in 1971, recently secured funding for an educational center at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga. He has worked diligently on water quality issues, preserving open space and parklands, prohibiting logging from state parks, pesticide protection legislation and clean air inventives. He has also sponsored legislation to address the purchase, use and application of chemicals in schools and to make information about those issues available to the public.

The award is named for its first recipient, a well-known environmental journalist in Buffalo.