Landscape Architects have made great strides in gaining recognition for the profession. Omisted may have coined the phrase Landscape Architecture but it was Raymond Page who first became a Licensed Landscape Architect.

Those of you who know Page have no doubt heard the story of him being called a posy planter while testifying as an expert witness. That comment set the ball in motion for you being able to call yourself a Landscape Architect.

Yes, you have come a long way! But the struggle is not over. For most of you the license you spent years trying to obtain only grants you the right to call yourself a Landscape Architect. This is what is known as a title-act license. A title-act license does not forbid unlicensed people from practicing Landscape Design.

A Landscape Designer can be anybody. A Landscape Designer doesn’t need an education, nor any real skill level. In fact when one looks through the yellow pages chances are you’ll find the kid next door is practicing Landscape Design along with installation and maintenance.

Now don’t get me wrong. There are some highly qualified landscape designers (in fact, the irrigation article in this issue was compiled by a landscape designer) but as long as people are allowed to practice landscape architecture under the guise of Landscape Design there will always be that public perception (fueled by those few landscape designers who really are unskilled) that all the beautiful work around that residence or industrial complex was conceived and installed by another landscaper.

The actual concept of landscape design is detrimental to the practice of Landscape Architecture. Here are people of no quantitative experience not only taking away your work but also, when the project goes awry, bringing down the reputation of the licensed Landscape Architect.

In our opinion nobody should be able to practice Landscape Architecture, in any form, without a license. How else can we protect the public health, safety and welfare? How else can you protect the reputation you’ve worked so hard to establish? Certainly not by having your neighbors landscape plan drawn up by a landscape designer!

Maintaining and enhancing your status as a qualified professional can only be accomplished by forcing every state in the country to adopt a practice-act license. This of course cannot happen overnight. It should, however, be the goal of the ASLA and every licensed Landscape Architect.

As long as there is a passive attitude toward the practice of landscape design the true Landscape Architect will suffer both economically and in reputation. It is the responsibility, in fact the right, of every licensed Landscape Architect to call for the end to the practice of landscape design and the end to the title-act license. Those who disagree either do not have 63 a license or haven’t been around long enough to see the fantastic strides accomplished by a few hard working pioneers in ridding the country of those posy planters who practice landscape design and bringing to the forefront the importance of the licensed Landscape Architect. If you practice landscape design… be real…get a license.