This past spring, I had the opportunity to participate in planning and hosting the New England Regional Climate Summit in collaboration with neighboring chapters including BSLA (Boston + Maine), New Hampshire, and Rhode Island. The summit was an initiative of ASLA's Climate Action Plan to begin having regional conversations around the issues and opportunities facing individual ecoregions of the country. Vermont may face increased precipitation and flooding, increasing temperatures (70 degrees in November!), and even the effects of climate migration as people exit cities and move to rural areas. Other states such as Massachusetts and Rhode Island have a heavy focus on the impacts of potential sea level rise.
In October, I participated in ASLA's national advocacy day along with members Lucy Thayer and Scott Wunderle. Our discussions with Congressional Leaders focused on promoting support for the Excess Urban Heat Mitigation Act (H.R. 7534) and the Outdoors for All Act (S. 2887 & H.R. 5413). Vermont's congressional leaders are always very receptive to supporting bills that benefit access to the outdoors and environmental improvements. In fact, Vermont is already increasing funding and availability for urban tree planting initiatives throughout the state in collaboration with the Vermont Urban & Community Forestry Program. This is recognition of both the threat of increased urban heat and cooling and healthful benefits of a mature urban tree canopy.

 
Despite this wealth of strategic planning, advocacy, and opportunity at the federal, regional, and state level, it still takes the initiative of our landscape architect members to see opportunities on projects to advocate for the environment and public health. Just recently, I came across an RFP from a Vermont RPC seeking final engineering design of stormwater treatment for a large urban parking lot. But the only solution was an in-ground collection and filtration system. Is this not an opportunity to combine the benefits of stormwater collection and treatment with the benefits of breaking up the parking area with vegetation to improve both aesthetics and the urban heat effects? When state and regional agencies don't coordinate on the benefits of holistic thinking, then it becomes our purview as landscape architects to advocate for improved solutions that provide a multi-layer of benefits to the project, environment, and community.
Which I guess is my way of saying- don't be afraid to speak up and use your knowledge and passion as landscape architects to convince your clients, state agencies, municipalities, or fellow consultants to think holistically. The momentum and opportunity for our profession is growing- let's not let it go to waste.
The Vermont Chapter sponsored a walking tour of Shelburne Farms in June 2022 as part of the Olmsted 200 celebration. Patricia O'Donnell, FASLA, and Greg DeVries, ASLA, of Heritage Landscapes led the tour, which focused on the Olmsted features in the Shelburne Farms Landscape. Their walk, which went from the Visitor Center to the Inn, highlighted many of the extant Olmsted features that can still be seen in the landscape today, as well as new features that have been added in the Olmsted style. The tour was limited to 25 people and was filled quickly.
Some highlights that participants shared were focused on the small details in design that typically go unnoticed as an intentional design intent. For example, the grass along drives and paths are often 'pillowed' to hide the view of the paths and to create a sense of continuous fields. Other notable tour stops included the walking path leading into the farm to highlight new swales with varying distances from the edge of a new path, and new plantings at the 'No T" intersections based on the original plantings observed in old aerial photos. Other stops at the Farm Barn and along the way to the Inn highlighted additional important Olmsted features.
The tour ended with refreshments on the north porch of the Inn provided by VTASLA.
The tour was so popular that Shelburne Farms asked if it could be done a second time. Patricia and Greg agreed, and the second tour in September was expanded to allow more participants and was again fully booked. To not only have a landscape such as Shelburne Farms so close to home but also have local experts is an incredible opportunity that we feel grateful for and hope to participate in more in the future!