LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dear NMASLA Members.

As we enter the second quarter of 2025, I’m thrilled to share that we’ve kicked off the year on an inspiring and productive note. I want to take a moment to recognize the outstanding efforts of our members, the New Mexico Board of Landscape Architects, the National ASLA, our dedicated lobbyist, and the entire landscape architecture community in New Mexico in relation to Senate Bill 113, which extends the operational authority of five regulatory boards, including the Board of Landscape Architects. While this bill originally aimed to extend the Board of Landscape Architects’ authority for six years, we successfully pushed for ten years. Our swift response to the call to action underscores our commitment to protecting the landscape architecture profession in our state. By securing our licenses, we’re ensuring that future generations maintain the standards of our field. This achievement is thanks to the dedication of our Practicing Landscape Architects (PLAs) and supporters who contacted their representatives. Your voices showcased the strength of our community in securing a sustainable future for landscape architecture in New Mexico. Please read Abby Feldman's announcement about this significant achievement for more details.

Additionally, we’re currently advocating for three other bills. For more details on these initiatives, please visit our “Advocacy 2025” page on our website.

Looking ahead, we must stay engaged with our legislators and continue to communicate the importance of our work. Let’s remain united in our mission to create healthy, vibrant, and resilient environments for all New Mexicans. Thank you for your ongoing support and advocacy.

I’d also like to highlight our monthly educational series hosted by our executive members. These sessions have been instrumental in exchanging ideas and initiatives that turn environmental challenges into opportunities for our communities, landscapes, and natural resources. Please mark your calendars for our next educational event on May 10; we’ll share more details soon!

We’re excited to announce that this year’s tournament will take place earlier to take advantage of New Mexico’s beautiful spring weather. Join us on the afternoon of May 16 for a bocce ball event at Dripline Brewery in Albuquerque. We expect another enjoyable gathering with great food, a costume contest, exhibitions, and raffle prizes, so save the date!

Now, more than ever, we encourage your participation, support, attendance, advocacy, and presence to keep our field relevant and vibrant. Stay connected by visiting our website, www.nmasla.org, and following our social media pages, newsletters, and updates for the latest information on upcoming events and presentations.

Together, we are making a significant impact!

Warm regards,

Arturo Merino

President, NMASLA

On April 7th 2025 Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed Senate Bill 113 that extends the operational authority of five regulatory boards, including the Board of Landscape Architects!

NMASLA successfully advocated for an amendment to this bill that extends the sunset period from six to ten years. We helped legislators understand that we operate through the dedication of a small group of committed volunteers. The process of hiring a lobbyist and coordinating advocacy efforts to uphold licensure standards requires significant time and financial resources, however, maintaining these standards is essential to protecting public health, safety, and welfare. As we all know, licensed landscape architects play a critical role in shaping New Mexico’s built environment, contributing to projects ranging from public parks and main street revitalizations to trail systems, streetscapes, and plazas. These public spaces are fundamental to the well-being of our communities, and our profession adheres to rigorous standards to ensure that the spaces we design are safe, sustainable, and aesthetically compelling, enhancing quality of life for all. Politicians heard our message and responded, helping us get this to the finish line!

A huge thanks to all the countless hours that our lobbyist (Daniel Maki) and volunteers expended to achieve a successful outcome, as well as our bill sponsors, Senator Campos and Representative Gonzalez.

Looking Ahead: Advocating for Licensure Updates

While we were not successful in passing Senate Bill 61 this session, we are primed to move forward with this work in the 2026 session. We are hoping to amend the Landscape Architects Act by modifying the experience requirements in New Mexico to better align with National standards and to provide more pathways to licensure. In a state with only one accredited landscape architecture program, it’s critical that the other pathways to licensure are more accessible to our residents. The bill will:

·      Lower the required minimum years of experience for applicants without a degree from ten years to eight years. 

·      Revise the experience requirements for applicants with related degrees, increasing the required practical experience for those who graduate from a related field from five years to six years. 

·      Grant the Board of Landscape Architects authority to increase the required years of experience for all applicants—whether they hold a degree or not—through rulemaking. This provision allows the board to align New Mexico’s licensure requirements with national model legislation or accreditation standards as they evolve over time. 

·      Maintain existing provisions that allow applicants to substitute formal education for portions of the required experience. For example, each year of study in an accredited landscape architecture program may replace one year of required practical experience, and a bachelor’s degree from any field may be accepted in lieu of two years of experience. 

These changes aim to modernize New Mexico’s licensure requirements while still ensuring that landscape architects meet professional competency standards. More updates will be provided as we advocate for this bill next year!

Following up on our conversation about ASLA wanting to control the narrative that chapters are putting out there, I think they would prefer that we just focus on our own licensure board so as not to make it look like our license is equivalent in education and qualifications to the board of barbers and cosmetologists.  Abby Feldman

The New Mexico Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (NMASLA) is proud to launch the monthly "Climate Action Education Series," with the hope of making this an annual event. This year’s series will align with the initiatives outlined in both the ASLA Climate Action Plan and the ASLA Climate Action Field Guide, focusing on three key areas: Practice, Equity, and Advocacy. Throughout the year, NMASLA will host six educational webinars and three in-person field trip events that will address critical topics such as Carbon Drawdown, Climate Resilience, Climate Agency, Cultural Empowerment, Climate Leadership, and Global Alliance. These events are designed to help landscape architects and designers deepen their understanding of the role our profession plays in combating climate change and fostering sustainability. NMASLA is excited to offer attendees one CEU certificate of completion credit hour per event with the goal of increasing opportunity and support for topics which are local and relevant to our region and conversations. 

The first three events of the series center on climate action practice. Our first webinar on February 27th, invited guest speakers, Brian Anacker (Science and Climate Resilience Senior Manager) from the City of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks and Claudia Browne (Water Resource Specialist/Western Strategy Lead) and Aiman Duckworth (Senior Landscape Architect and Ecologist) from Biohabitats, to present their research and work surrounding climate resilience and carbon sequestration in the semi-arid climate of Boulder, Colorado, as well as discuss this study's relevancy to New Mexico's ecosystems and climate. Jan-Willem Jansens (Owner and Principal) of Ecotone Landscape Planning, spoke to us on April 3rd regarding his work and designs related to collaborative and holistic forest management in headwater drainages as pivotal sites to help capture and store more water through the protection and recovery of snowpack. To wrap up the series' chapter on practice, Reese Baker (Owner and Founder) from The RainCatcher, will be guiding an in-person tour in Santa Fe on Saturday, May 10th of various sites which highlight how fungi can be incorporated as an important tool in the urban environment to build ecosystems that recharge aquifers, enhance biodiversity, build wildlife and pollinator habitats. 

In alignment with ASLA’s vision for 2040, NMASLA is working to ensure that all landscape architecture projects:

• Achieve zero embodied and operational emissions and increase carbon sequestration

• Provide significant economic  benefits in the form of measurable ecosystem services, health co-benefits, sequestration, and green jobs

• Address climate injustices, empower communities, and increase equitable distribution of climate investments

• Restore ecosystems and increase and protect biodiversity

We hope this educational series will be a valuable and accessible resource in advancing these goals and look forward to your participation as we work together to shape the future of landscape architecture. 

UNM is Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of SAP

NMASLA Climate Action Education Series, Walking Tour of Santa Fe, NM May 10, 2025

NMASLA Summer Tournament - Dripline Brewery, Albuquerque, NM. May 16, 2025

ASLA National Conference - New Orlean, Louisiana, October 10-13, 2025