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I don’t mean to imply that imbalanced wetlands spontaneously generate malaria, if that’s what I did. My point is that a functional wetland is probably no more likely to be a mosquito breeding ground than a poorly designed/maintained human-made structure that has the potential to hold standing water (roofs, playground equipment, storm sewers,…[Read more]

If you are creating retention basins that have standing water for more than a few hours, you are doing it wrong. 
 

I have seen Xi’an but I am planning to make a quick trip to Beijing as well. Xi’an was pretty good but would of been more enjoyable if I hadn’t gone during the heart of tourist season. 

This is a good topic to discuss right now due to the huge increase in West Nile Virus and Eastern Equine Enciphilites (sp?). We just had a death reported this morning here in Massachusetts from EEE. These are diseases contracted through mosquito bites for those unfamiliar. Aerial spraying over entire communities is now being done for the first…[Read more]

I doubt that malaria is an aberration due to wetlands out of balance. Malaria has been with us for a long time. Humans used to stay away from such places. Now we won’t. If that is the imbalance that makes malaria a problem (that is, we insist on living where our parasites flourish) then I suppose wetlands with malaria mosquitoes and humans are by…[Read more]

While the notion that

wetlands are always seen as a good thing to add to any almost any design

strikes me as extreme and that such absolutes go against the very soul of the design process, I question the conclusions stated so far that wetlands are problematic because humans can’t safely splash around in them!
The planet is not 100% our playground, folks!

Haha, not at all, glad to see it getting shared

Believe me, in similar contexts I also “feel the pain,” but we need to strategize what to do about it. Sometimes it’s all set, but other time the news can be an opening to hop in there somewhere. I would cite a case but don’t want to broadcast it, where I saw a story about something intriguing earlier this year and at first I had the same “darn I…[Read more]

Well it was a change of pace and creative….hope not infringing on copyrights 🙂

Leslie: 

Thank you for more thoughtful and well-reasoned commentary here. I have been having this problem with my knee recently where it tends to have an unexpected and massive twitch that seems to occur when I am posting on Land8Lounge, and I tend to come off more as “jerk” sometimes. If I consider things more clearly and completely like you…[Read more]

Locally we have experienced deaths from an amoeba that comes from swimming in contaminated wetlands. Swimmers itch is another one that comes from swimming is wetlands. Depending on where you are at a wetland is habitat for animals that you may not want in your development. I heard a story about how a snake crawled out of a swamp and into someones…[Read more]

If I’m correct in assuming that you’re a student at The Ohio State University, you should contact Dr. Mitsch and/or visit the Olentangy River Wetland Research Park (of which Dr. Mitsch is the Director). Jacob Boswell is fairly knowledgeable on the topic of wetlands, as well (I’m assuming you know who he is because I’m also assuming you’re in…[Read more]

Thanks for sharing the post and for the input, i’ll be sure to keep them in mind for my future posts!

Greatly appreciated!

Re-reading my post this morning (written too late at night), I see I didn’t make a good connection to the frustration with ASLA. That pdf doesn’t mention consultants, but I think I read somewhere that somebody “big” in the profession was chosen as a consultant on the Poplar Point part of it. 

In other words, there has been LA involvement already…[Read more]

I don’t know anything about the pocket parks cited (although there are initiatives like Bette Midler’s organization in New York City and as I posted in another thread, they are advertising to fill positions and mention LA as a desired form of training).

HOWEVER, that bridge story reminds me of having read about the area one time and I just…[Read more]

I’m working on a talk about garden design for the upcoming ASLA convention. part of my talk is “lessons you didn’t learn in school”, one is: landscaping is a situation where you can spend an enormous amount of money and when your done you still can have all the problems you started with….it’s often just eyewash.

There was a lot to digest there, and yes he could have shared more how he managed the intermediate steps to self employment. But then he was talking about a widespread condition and did make the point that  “My practice fills a tiny niche and I recognize that it is not financially viable for the profession as a whole,” which I think is a key to u…[Read more]

I would add two things:
 
Before you leave for the day, lock up all of your tools, including pens, pencils, and especially trace and scales, if you can. Or just take them home with you. Otherwise, IT WILL BE TAKEN.
 
Free food makes for a happy studio. Donuts and/or bagels are particularly appreciated.

This is all good advice regarding how to handle a 6-8″ grade change in a residential patio.  I was considering the patio at the top to be the “step” even though according to Mark’s definition,  it isn’t really a tread, it’s the patio.    I agree with Mark and others, therefore, that it would be very easy for someone to back into that single  6-8…[Read more]