ASLA UTAH APRIL 2023 NEWSLETTER

UPCOMING EVENTS

**REGISTER NOW!**

**ASLA UT Annual Conference May 18th & 19th, West Valley City.** **REGISTER HERE**

**VICTOR STANLEY LACES VIRTUAL LEARNING** **May 30, 12:00PM MST** **REGISTER HERE**

BELBARD Lunch & Learn Featuring Mirage Porcelain Tuesday, June 13th 12:00pm ASLA UT Offices 270 S 400 W SLC **REGISTER HERE**

**UNLA Women in the Green Industry Lunch & Roundtable Even**t **August 10, noon – 1:00 pm Botanicals, Sandy. REGISTER HERE**

Leadership Express

Jake Powell, ASLA Utah President

Spring in Utah!

There isn’t much better than springtime in Utah, especially this year. After a long, cold, wet winter it is so nice to see life emerging from underneath the snow! I don’t suppose any of us can escape the irony of switching from concerns about drought to concerns about flooding all in the space of about 9 months.

I have been thinking a lot about our role as a profession as I have observed these wild swings in our local climate. Almost daily I encounter neighbors, students, and community leaders experiencing concern, anxiety, and sometimes outright despair about how the world we live in is straining under the ecological stresses we hear about on nearly every news channel. I am honored to be part of a profession that takes the responsibility, obligation, and opportunity our profession has to engage in proactively addressing the challenges our species are facing. Our discipline is uniquely tooled to engage the issues and enact positive change, we translate despair into action!

The ASLA’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) is one such call to action. I encourage you to get familiar with the CAP and the great resources provided online. The field guide provides a great framework to begin operationalizing the goals of the CAP in the projects you work on. We will be heeding the National ASLA’s call to organize state CAP committees to help develop and advocate for locally relevant CAP efforts. If you are interested in being involved in such a committee, please reach out and let me know.

This summer our chapter will be working to proactively engage with Utah’s elected leaders and staff to work to protect what we see as a continued effort to weaken Utah’s landscape architecture licensure. The Utah Legislature has commissioned an audit to be performed over the summer of all of Utah’s state boards and commissions. The landscape architecture licensing board will be one of the more than 400 state boards and commissions that will be reviewed. The stated purpose of this audit is to identify boards that should be eliminated.

The Utah landscape architect board is an advisory board to the Utah Division of Professional Licensing (DOPL). This volunteer, but appointed board is independent of ASLA and board members serve as content expert resources for DOPL regarding licensure requirements, grievances, and licensure policy changes. We feel that this important representation of our professional within DOPL is critical to the validity and strength of our licensure.

I am telling you this because your help will likely be needed over the summer and fall to engage in this review and add your voice conversation. We will likely be reaching out for data and high profile projects that demonstrate the impact and value (economic, social, and ecological) of landscape architects in Utah. We are going to stop just doing good work and stand up and show it off.

The Utah Chapter is working closely with ASLA national to be on the offensive regarding this review, but we will thrive or flounder depending on your support, engagement, and assistance. Please keep an eye out for future requests and don’t miss any opportunity to talk with your local and state elected representatives about the impact of your work. It is time to come out of the proverbial shade and into the light this summer!

World Landscape Architecture Month- ASLA Utah Celebrates Arbor Day

Aaron Johnson, VP of Visibility

Another successful WORLD LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MONTH in the books! We tolok a “Road Trip Through Utah!” and highlighted the amazing scenery and unique communities within the great State of Utah. The first leg took us to the beautiful landscapes that have made Utah world renowned from the various National Parks in Southern Utah to the iconic Great Salt Lake. The second leg took us to the beautiful projects in Southern Utah and the successes of St George City. The third leg provided a glimpse of the amazing projects going on in the communities along the Wasatch Front. World Landscape Architecture Month culminated in the volunteer activities in northern and southern Utah, an amazing opportunity to get our hands dirty and help our communities.

HUGE thanks to the all of our members, sponsors and new partners that helped make this month possible. PROGRESSIVE PLANTS and TREE UTAH for putting on and sponsoring our northern Utah service activity! ST GEORGE CITY for sponsoring the southern Utah service activity! HUGE THANKS to the Utah ASLA Committee members and a special thank you to the VISIBILITY SUB COMMITTEE for all the time and effort to make our ROAD TRIP THROUGH UTAH a reality!

**ASLA Utah Conference**
**Bridging The Gap**

ASLA Utah Conference Schedule- May 18th-19th Utah Cultural Celebration Center, West Valley

Thursday, May 18, 2023

8:00am Check In — Lanyard Sponsor: Rain Bird

8:00am Breakfast & Vendor Expo — Breakfast Sponsor: Belgard

9:00am Conference Kick Off — Title Sponsor: BioGrass

9:15am Welcome & Introduction Adam Castor, RLA, ASLA, ASLA Utah Past President

9:30am Keynote Speaker 1 PDH Laura Hanson, State Planning Coordinator

10:30am Break Centerpiece Sponsor: LuckyDog

10:45am Landscape Architect Presentation 1 PDH Cory Shupe, Landscape Architect - blu’ line designs

11:45am Lunch Sponsor: GPH Irrigation

1:00pm ASLA Climate Action presentation — Speaker Sponsor: Victor Stanley

Presenter: Emily O’Mahoney, ASLA President

2:00pm Break — Sponsor: Calsense

2:15pm Panel Discussion - Josh Sundloff - Moderator

Scott Peters - Landscape Architect
Dave Abraham - Architect
Amanda Risano - Civil Engineer
Pat Putt - Planner

4:00pm President’s Address Jake Powell, ASLA Utah Chapter President

4:30pm Vendor Expo Raffle

6:00pm-8:00pm Conference Social Live Band, drinks, & socializing, at the UCCC

Friday, May 19, 2023

9:00am-10:00am Site Tour Landscape Lab at the Williams Building, University of Utah Presenters: Sarah Hinners, University of Utah; and Mark Morris, VODA

10:30am Breakout Session 1

Living Building Certification – Kenner Kingston
ADA Accessibility and Landscape Architecture - Jared Presser
Landscape Construction Update - Perry Bratt

11:30am Lunch On The Patio — Lunch Sponsor: Miller Companies

President-Elect Address Paul Stead, ASLA Utah Chapter President-Elect

12:30pm Breakout Session 2

Playground Surfaces and Fall Protection - Rhetta McIff
Ecology and Stormwater Management - Sarah Hinners
Landscape Architecture Forum - LA Board Members: Scott Peters, Josh Sundloff, Jay Bollwinkle

1:45pm Breakout Session 3

Utah Water Conditions Update - Candice Hasenyager & Stephanie Duer
Principal LA at Arch Firm - Abram Nielson

2:45pm Closing Address Adam Castor, ASLA Utah Past President

USU Student Chapter Highlight

Hi, my name is Zach Sannar, and I am the Vice President of Outreach Coordination for CAAS (College of Agriculture and Applied Sciences) for the USU student chapter of ASLA. Being a part of the student ASLA presidency this year has been so rewarding and amazing to say the least.

For April, which is World Landscape Architecture Month, the USU student chapter held USU ASLA week, which had events every day of the week 4/3 - 4/7 to celebrate Landscape Architecture. Monday had goodie bags on desks packed by the USU student presidency, Tuesday was a grab and go breakfast for students, Wednesday was stump talks for election of the next year 2023-24 student presidency, they were successful with new students stepping in and a few students coming back next year. Thursday, we had a food drive with students donating canned food or shelf stable items, USU students donated 201 cans! And finally, Friday the USU chapter participated in a sketching/charrette event were students redesigned USU’s campus green spaces. In the upcoming school year, I am looking forward to continuing development between the student and state ASLA chapters, and helping students reach their potential as future Landscape Architects!

Special Thanks to ASLA Utah 2023 Sponsors & Corporate Partners for their Support!

Click here to become a 2023 ASLA Utah Sponsor!

Platinum Sponsors
BioGrass | Great Western Recreation l Pikus | Rain Bird | Victor Stanley

Corporate Partners
Denton House |Io LandArch | SGLA Technical Training

ASLA UTAH APRIL NEWSLETTER