OCGP’s Handel Honorary ASLA

Steven Handel, Ph.D, is professor of Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers University in New Jersey, an Adjunct Professor of Ecology at the University of California at Irvine and Director of the Center for Urban Restoration Ecology, a joint venture of Rutgers and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Actor Robert Redford have also Awarded. Photo courtesy of OCGP

Steven Handel, Ph.D., the lead ecologist for the Great Park Design Studio, is among an elite group of 13 individuals selected to be awarded Honorary Membership by the American Society of Landscape Architects “This is a high honor to be selected for membership,” said Dr. Handel. “I am delighted that my work has been recognized by such an esteemed organization.”

Past winners include Nobel Laureates Wangari Maathai and Albert Gore, Lady Bird Johnson, President Jimmy Carter, Mayor Richard M. Daley, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt, Laurence Rockefeller, and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Dr. Handel is President of Green Shield Ecology, a landscape restoration firm based in Bridgewater, New Jersey. In addition to the Orange County Great Park, his work includes the new Brooklyn Bridge Park in New York and natural landscaping for the master plan for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. His work on the Orange County Great Park involves restoration of the environment where native plant life has been choked out by development. “The Great Park is one of the biggest ecological restoration projects in America. We hope to bring back hundreds of native species to the Park,” said Dr. Handel. “This can be an example for cities across America that are interested in improving their ecology.”

The Orange County Great Park, which is almost twice the size of New York’s Central Park, will be a major metropolitan park and the focal point of the redevelopment of the 4,700-acre former Marine Corps Air Station at El Toro. The Great Park will include extensive natural areas and open space in addition to recreational, educational, and cultural uses.