New York State Announces Pollinator Plan Update
The New York State Departments of Agriculture and Markets, Environmental Conservation (DEC), and New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) has announced the 2020 Pollinator Protection Plan Update. The update outlines actions taken since the creation of the Pollinator Protection Plan and provides several recommendations to further the State’s goals to protect its pollinator populations. This includes creating the Cooperative Honey Bee Health Improvement Plan, expanding the NYS Beekeeper Tech Team, increasing pollinator friendly habitats, and continuing critical research on the major stressors to honey bees.
State Agencies’ Role in Best Management Practices and Pollinator Habitats
The Pollinator Protection Plan has helped advance many of the State’s goals to protect its pollinator populations, including developing voluntary best management practices for all pollinator stakeholders and developing habitat enhancement efforts to protect and revive populations of native and managed pollinators. New York State’s agencies, such as DEC, OPRHP, the NYS Department of Transportation, the NYS Thruway Authority, and the NYS Office of General Services, have contributed greatly to enhancing habitats and implementing best management practices for pollinators since 2016. Agencies have conducted pollinator surveys; reduced or altered mowing practices to avoid disruptions to pollinator life cycles, provide late-season forage and aid in wildflower seed dispersal; planted pollinator friendly trees and flowers in landscaping; installed bee boxes in viable areas; implemented 11 critical projects that enhanced native pollinator habitat; and educated the public on the diversity and importance of native pollinators.
The Pollinator Plan Update recommends that all state agencies, including OPRHP, continue to conserve, maintain, and expand pollinator gardens and larger pollinator habitats, emphasizing the use of native plantings.
NYS Tech Team
In response to rising concerns about honey bee declines, the New York State Pollinator Protection Plan included the development and expansion of the NYS Beekeeper Tech Team at Cornell University. The NYS Beekeeper Tech Team works directly with beekeepers to improve honey bee health, reduce colony losses, and increase profitability of the beekeeping industry. To date, the Tech Team has worked with a total of 58 beekeepers who manage 27,094 colonies in New York State. The team has sampled colonies from 138 apiaries across 30 counties to assess the queen status, population strength, brood health, and to collect Varroa, Nosema, and pesticide samples.
The Pollinator Protection Plan Update recommends expanding the Tech Team by increasing its geographic range to enroll beekeepers in unrepresented areas, such as the North Country, Hudson Valley, New York City, and Long Island. It also recommends the Tech Team program broaden its reach to New York State beekeepers by offering web-based learning tutorials on best management practices.
Integrated Pest Management and Research
Additional future recommendations include targeting Cornell University’s Integrated Pest Management Program (IPM) to develop best management practices for the use of treated seed in crop production and fungicides in specialty crops. In addition, the update recommends replicating Cornell’s on-farm research on pesticide spray practices and pesticide residues (pollen, wax) used on strawberry and apple farms to other New York cropping systems and commodities.
The update also supports additional IPM research on alternative control measures and treatment for the Varroa mite. Varroa mites were identified by the NYS Tech Team as one of the top stressors for honey bees and are a significant predictor of winter colony loss.
Read more here
RELATED: ASLA-NY POSITION PAPER on PROTECTING POLLINATORS
New York State Board for Landscape Architecture Extends Online CEU approvals
In response to the evolving situation with COVID-19, the New York State Board of Education has extended continuing education (CE) self-study to those licensees who registrations are due to renew through May 1, 2021 to complete up to 100% of the CE requirements as self-study, provided the CE is taken from a Department-approved provider. For further information and complete requirements, please visit the OP website at http://www.op.nysed.gov/COVID-19.html#COED
2020 ASLA-NY Election Results
ASLA-NY is pleased to announce the results of our 2020 elections. We are thrilled to welcome back our continuing Board Members and Trustee and excited for what the future holds with our new faces! Thank you to our outgoing Board Members and the contributions you have made to our Chapter, we are extremely fortunate for your service.
President-elect: Carl Carlson
Trustee: Jennifer Nitzky
Treasurer: David Russo
In-coming / continuing Board Members:
Wendy Andringa
Suzanne Greene
Matt Houser
Nick Pettinati
Kimberly Tryba
New board members will begin terms in October and join our current board members who will be entering the second year of their 2-year term:
President: Elizabeth Moskalenko
Secretary: Annie Bergelin
Board Members:
Jason Bajor
Anna Ceraulo-Jalazo
Jordan Guerrero
Anchalee Phaosawasdi
Nancy Prince
Press Release: ASLA Announces 2020 Honors
AMERICAN SOCIETY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS, NEW YORK (ASLA-NY)
ANNOUNCES 2020 ASLA HONORS RECIPIENTS
Annual Program Recognizes Excellence in the Practice of Landscape Architecture
New York, New York (June 25, 2020) – The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) has announced the 2020 Honors and Medals recipients. Selected by ASLA’s Board of Trustees, the honors represent the highest recognition ASLA bestows each year. Medals will be presented to recipients at the ASLA Conference on Landscape Architecture in October. Two honors have been awarded to New York landscape architects: Martha Schwartz, FASLA will receive the ASLA Design Medal and James Corner Field Operations will receive the Landscape Architecture Firm Award. ASLA-NY Chapter President, Elizabeth Moskalenko, RLA comments,
“On behalf of ASLA-NY, I congratulate Martha Schwartz, FASLA and James Corner Field Operations for their outstanding achievement as our two New York recipients of the 2020 ASLA Honor Awards!”
The ASLA Design Medal recognizes an individual landscape architect who has produced a body of exceptional design work at a sustained level for a period of at least ten years. In her nomination statement, Thaisa Way PhD, FASLA, FAAR, Professor of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington writes,
“Schwartz’s practice as a landscape architect deeply embedded in the art of design has shaped the field and discipline in multiple ways. The beauty and thoughtfulness of her designed landscapes have inspired generations of young designers as they discover the power of design as an art.”
Martha Schwartz, FASLA
Martha Schwartz is a landscape architect and artist with major interests in cities, communities, and the urban landscape. As senior partner of Martha Schwartz Partners, she has over 40 years of experience as a landscape architect, urbanist, and artist on a wide variety of projects located around the world with a variety of world-renowned architects. She is the recipient of numerous awards and prizes including the Honorary Royal Designer for Industry Award from the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts; the Cooper Hewitt National Design Award; the Women in Design Award for Excellence from the Boston Society of Architects; a fellowship from the Urban Design Institute; an Honorary Fellowship from the Royal Institute of British Architects; Council of Fellows Award by the American Society of Landscape Architects and most recently a Doctor Honoris Causa from the Boston Architectural College.
Martha is a tenured Professor in Practice of Landscape Architecture at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, advancing design for Climate Change Mitigation, a founding member of the Working Group of Sustainable Cities at Harvard University and an active member of the Landscape Architecture Foundation Climate Change Task Force. She has lectured nationally and internationally about sustainable cities and the urban landscape, and her work has been featured widely in publications and gallery exhibitions.
View nominating and supporting materials
The Landscape Architecture Firm Award is the highest honor that the American Society of Landscape Architects may bestow on a landscape architecture firm. This award recognizes landscape architecture firms that have produced bodies of distinguished work influencing the professional practice of landscape architecture. In the nomination letter of support, Adrian Benepe, Hon. ASLA and Senior Vice President & Director of City Park Development at the Trust for Public Land writes,
“The firm has produced some of the profession’s most lauded built work, including New York’s much-acclaimed High Line, and proven to be a leader in increasing landscape architecture’s visibility and relevance, especially in cities around the country. The firm raises the bar for the profession. Their efforts to help educate and push the profession to new horizons is a distinguishing mark of this firm.”
In a statement of support, Jennifer Nitzky, RLA, ASLA and Trustee of the ASLA NY Chapter comments:
“Through their masterfully crafted designs, James Corner Field Operations has elevated how people experience the landscape offering a creative and memorable celebration of place. With a portfolio of highly recognizable projects of international acclaim, this firm is pushing the envelope of complex design solutions that broadens the reach of landscape architecture with beautiful places that will endure through time.”
James Corner Field Operations
Founded in 1999, James Corner Field Operations is a leading-edge landscape architecture and urban design practice based in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Shenzhen. Field Operations is renowned for strong contemporary design across a variety of project types and scales, from large urban districts, master plans and complex planning sites, to small well-crafted, detailed design projects. Regardless of scale, there is a special commitment to the design of a vibrant and dynamic public realm, informed by the ecology of both people and nature, rooted in place and context.
Project types range from entire sectors of cities to urban development districts, institutional campuses, urban waterfronts, large public parks, urban squares, public places, roof terraces, and small intimate gardens. This range of project types exemplifies our capacity to think creatively in terms of ecology, economics, development and programming, and experientially in terms of physical design, spatial experience, and the poetics of place. Field Operations’ work has been recognized by both peer groups and those outside the field of landscape architecture. The firm’s work has also been published and exhibited internationally.
View nominating and supporting materials
For full details on all ASLA Medal and Honor Award recipients, please go to: https://www.asla.org/2020honors.aspx
For a listing of all past recipients of ASLA Medal and Honor Awards, go to: https://www.asla.org/HonorsAwards.aspx
About the American Society of Landscape Architects, New York Chapter:
The American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) is the national professional association for landscape architects. Founded in 1899, the association represents over 15,000 members and features 49 professional chapters and 76 student chapters. The New York Chapter, founded in 1914, encompasses the five boroughs of New York City, Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, and Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Orange and Rockland counties. The Society’s mission is to lead in the planning, design and care of both our natural and built environments. While keeping pace with the ever-changing forces of nature and technology, landscape architects increasingly have a profound impact on the way people live, work and play.
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