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Worker, I would tend to agree with you about a conflict of interest but how many entries there are in a typical year? If there are 20 entries and more than half of them are from firms that are highly involved sponsors of the chapter then it would not be that surprising to have those firms be the award winners, but as Jason said it would be nice t…[Read more]

Our chapter sends the entries for our awards to another chapter outside of the region for judging. I know many other chapters do this as not to have any appearances of conflicts of interest, as many of the chapter’s leaders also work for firms that submit.

Just a quick note after visiting my state chapter’s website again.  I looked at the most recent local ASLA awards and found something strange..maybe?  At least 80%-90% of the firms that ‘won’ awards were the same 80%-90% of the firms that ‘sponsored’ the local chapter.  How is this not a complete conflict of interest for the state ASLA chapter in…[Read more]

Anglican…Now thats a good one. We are a boring lot, ain’t we?

They have been changing the laws … to make them more restrictive.  Surely, you did not miss ASLA’s “50 by 2010” campaign?

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I hope that this story is getting enough attention that the whole story comes out. I have to believe that this was a condition attached to a permit that they violated.
 
I’d like to think that I can cut down any tree in my yard as long as it is not in a wetland buffer. … even in Massachusetts.

“It’s all flyover land to me…”
 
Thank goodness for that.

Gotta love a site where pruning invokes such passion.  
So, who’s going to tell the Brits, French, and Dutch they are wrong (see pollard, coppice).  Maybe the church is Anglican or reformist…  Ha! 

Good article. It is good to see that there are professionals not more concerned with job preservation than actually doing their jobs. Topping trees is an archaic form of arboriculture that is no longer recommended by any of the professional arboricultural  associations. I worked in a county where it was illegal to do so but the initial penalty…[Read more]

ever been to Vancouver? check out their ordinance..landscape ordinance I mean..very beautiful city..interesting  ordinance – graphic based..
nothing is perfect..sorry your experience is so bad. And LA’s do a l ot of things in planning o ffices, for the $35,000 a  year they m ake – I am sure you know that! I think the long-range planners are way m…[Read more]

In many areas Crape Myrtles are Shrubs and not trees. The inspectors should know better. Shame.

I think you misunderstood what I was getting at. It’s not that there should not be some type of regulation, its they TYPE of regulation in that the QUANTIFICATION and inflexibility of plant lists are wrong way to approach this. And besides, shouldn’t LAs in a planning office make better use of their time and OUR money than counting little circles…[Read more]

probably depends on the community, Andrew – I just picked up the first form that came up googling Idaho site Plan Review..Idaho has some cities doesn’t it? It’s all flyover land to me…

Hmmmm. I actually did some commercial landscape design in the state of Idaho and had to meet planting standards fifteen years ago. I don’t remember the specifics, but they included shade trees, a certain % of evergreen & deciduous shrubs of a fair size and a high density.

I think, Jason, that despite your unfortunate experience, Jason, the rule in the US tends towards no regulation and no enforcement, way more often than the overzealous nazi types – we don’t have many of them in the planning departments..
all zoning ordinances are subject to public comment and review all the time – I am sure you go to all the…[Read more]

 
However, over-regulation by over-zealous ‘officials’ like this makes your municipality look like a Soviet-style Politburo and can actually discourage development or improvements, (much the way it has with the ADA). Numerical quantification of vegetation or cover can also be hindrance to good design. Very often, the planting lists are woefully…[Read more]

It’s a long story, Jordan, that started, in recent history, with the locked doors of the Triangle Shirtwaiste Factory in Manhattan, where hundreds of young women jumped out of windows to their deaths in front of thousands of traumatized citizens..
And it is a long path from there, with many twists and turns..
‘Commercial Site Plan Review’ as this…[Read more]

change the law?(I just wrote a lot more and it didnt post it besides that half a sentance nevermind)

All perfectly practical until someone writes a law. Then you go by the letter of the law.
 
The biggest things that I’m getting out of this thread are that the subject of licensure is not well taught and not enough people are reading the laws that govern their state in regard to the subject.  .
 
Or there may be a “Pirates of the Caribbean” at…[Read more]