Re: "The Suburban Turf Ecosystem" news item on landscapearchitect.com
Editor?EUR??,,????'?????< This news item discussed how suburban lawns are falling under a more rigorous scientific microscope to better understand how they affect the ecosystem, that is, how garden fertilizers and pesticides affect wildlife and how polluted storm water runoff is undermining the health of streams and bodies of water.
Jennifer Jenkins of the University of Vermont is involved in a study of 40 suburban yards near Baltimore. She was one of the scientists who reported her findings in December at a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, noting: "There?EUR??,,????'?????<
News flash: The study of 40 suburban yards near Baltimore will determine that, along with impervious surfaces and unsustainable agriculture, the “suburban turf ecosystem” is killing the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.
Terry Mock
Principal
Tree of Life Sustainable Development Consulting
Palm Beach, Fla.
Re: "Orange County Great Park has Winning Landscape Architect," on landscapearchitect.com
Ken Smith & Associates have the opportunity to carry on the great park tradition of Frederick Law Olmsted and Lawrence Halprin. They were the first leaders of large public park design, and now the torch has been passed on to a new generation of Landscape Architects.
Orange County is to be congratulated on their choice of Smith.
Gary H. Roller
Landscape Architect, city of Agoura Hills
Agoura Hill, Calif.
Editor?EUR??,,????'?????< Be sure to see in this issue the feature "Process of the Great Park" for an in-depth look at the master plans from the national and international landscape architect firms competing to get their designs selected and how the final decision played out.
Re: "Trompe l?EUR??,,????'?????<
Editor?EUR??,,????'?????< A large retaining wall at the Lexington Bluegrass Airport was masked with a mural to simulate a landscape.
Genius, pure genius. This is a wonderful solution to the problem.
Rick Marley
Asst. City Engineer
Champaign Public Works Dept.
Champaign, Illinois
Re: "Importing a Tropical Landscape to Southern California" in the Jan. 2006 issue:
With all due respect to the talented RLA featured in the article titled "Importing a Tropical Landscape to Southern California,” (you are) doing a disservice to the green industry and society by promoting an obviously unsustainable land use model for the Los Angeles basin ecosystem that “is essentially a sunny Mediterranean climate, warm and dry in all seasons. The average annual rainfall is only 13-16 inches.”
Terry Mock
Principal
Tree of Life Sustainable Development Consulting
Palm Beach, Fla.
Re: "Ornamenting a Classical Landscape" in the Jan. 2006 issue:
I was fascinated with your article (Leslie McGuire?EUR??,,????'?????<
We have had very interesting responses already. One in particular sounds like a replica of Belvedere Castle in Austria with gardens requiring many statues and fountains. The landscape architect was thrilled to have found us through your article.
Many, many thanks,
Lynette G. Proler?Proler Garden Antiques, Inc.
Pacific Palisades, Calif.
Re: News item "Scrapping Water-Greedy Turf" on landscapearchitect.com:
I am always suspicious of groups that use inflammatory words to describe generally benign objects or materials. To use the phrase “vicious” in conjunction with Kentucky bluegrass is almost laughable if it were not for the effect it has on the general public. In most cases, the use of such terms are employed not to enlighten the public, but to scare people into believing the advocates are right.
Finally, the author infers that there is something negative about Kentucky bluegrass because its origins are from Europe. I suspect the author himself probably has a European heritage.
Chris Beasley
sales manager
Tuckhoe Turf Farms
Canton, Mass.
Re: Alabama Tries to Prevent Lawsuits by Cutting Down Hundreds of Trees" on landsacapeonline.com:
Death, taxes and lawsuits"?oeYou can try to avoid them, but you can never totally prevent them from happening.
Trees take many years to grow and make a significant and important contribution to the beauty of the adjoining roads cape. I certainly hope the residents of Alabama are up in arms about this. Preventing injuries and potentially deaths is certainly important but perhaps there is a better solution than destroying a scenic resource that is not easily replaced. The DOT engineers should look at practical solutions. When you approach an overpass column or bridge abutment they often put a compressible buffer around it to avoid injuries, should it be struck by an errant driver. The same concept could be applied to significant trees in the landscape. Plant dense 3’-6’shrubs around the base of larger trees so that a car that runs off the road would be slowed up safely by a cushion of smaller flexible plantings and never even strike the immovable object"?oethe tree. These plantings would add beauty, screen headlight glare for adjoining properties and avoid costly lawsuits while preserving the beauty of the Alabama landscape. This is safety engineering at its best! Please pass this idea along to the Alabama Department of Transportation and landscape architects who practice there. I hope common sense prevails before the irreversible damage is done. Thank you for your consideration.
Edward J. Kleckner
Landscape Architect, #244
Menasha, Wis.
