California Landscape Design

What Comes Next 

Greetings from the New Sustainability and Advocacy Co-Chairs!

The New Year is here, and we are excited to step into our roles as your new California Chapter Sustainability and Advocacy representatives. Our plans for “what comes next” would not be possible without the incredible progress and achievements made during years past by committed APLD members and leaders. We encourage you to take a few worthwhile moments to read this article from the APLD California Chapter Newsletter, June 2016, written by Maureen Decombe, describing the important linkages between APLD advocacy, our roles as professional landscape designers, and the watershed approach to landscapes.

Sustainability, Education, & Training

Thanks to the combined work of APLD California Chapter volunteers, G3 Green Gardens Group (an APLD California Gold Sponsor), Surfrider Foundation, and the California Water Efficiency Partnership (CalWEP), we have an amazing resource to use in all our trainings and outreach activities—our newest handbook California Watershed Approach to Landscape Design —a comprehensive reference to provide guidance and a robust design framework ready to be put into action.

Our vision for the coming year is to collaboratively build on this work to develop educational opportunities for our members to help them make the watershed approach to landscape design an integral component of their designs and businesses. We want to help members become comfortable conveying this approach to clients, colleagues, contractors, sponsors, and even legislators—basically anyone and everyone.

To further these efforts, we want to meet with members from each district—especially the Sustainability/Advocacy and Program/Event representatives—to seek ways to collaborate in the delivery of educational and training activities. Great ideas come from great people, and we are eager to hear yours!

Advocacy

Over the years, our roles as “advocates” has evolved. Our focus has included protecting our right to practice, supporting legislation for the benefit of our industry, and learning how to effectively communicate with regulators, legislators, and their staff about the importance of professional landscape designers to achieve conservation goals.

During the coming year, we will continue with our core advocacy activities:

· Attending the Landscape Architects Technical Committee (LATC) meetings to observe and flag relevant issues for our membership. Based on the location of each meeting, we will reach out to local APLD members to join us, so that others can become informed about the LATC and help to provide a succession of member involvement.

· Monitoring relevant statewide legislative and policy initiatives, with the assistance of a consultant to provide legislative analysis. The primary focus will be reviewing recently adopted state legislation to determine strategic points of engagement for landscape design professionals related to water conservation and the watershed approach to landscaping. In addition, we will be tracking potential revisions, if any, to the Model Water Efficient Landscape Ordinance (MWELO).

Communications

Funds have been allocated to develop a Sustainability & Advocacy page on the APLD CA website. In addition to providing updates in the quarterly online publication California Landscape Design, we see this webpage as a valuable resource and benefit to our members. If you are a person with website design, writing, or research skills, we want your help!

We are looking forward to building upon the solid Sustainability & Advocacy foundation that has evolved during past years and collaborating with our members throughout the state to advance this work for the benefit of our APLD-CA members, our clients’ landscapes, and our environment.

Co-Chair Cheryl Buckwalter
sustainability@apldca.org