LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Happy Holidays! 

As landscape professionals (current and aspiring) we acknowledge and celebrate seasons, perhaps more than most.The winter season with its cooler temperatures and shorter days, marks a time of dormancy. We know this doesn’t mean everything comes to a halt. Rather, it is a time for conserving resources, shifting focus, and planning for a new season. Just as many plants whose above ground portions die back so the living parts, the root system, protected buds, and seeds persist - so NMASLA, similarly, is utilizing this season to plan upcoming events, identify advocacy initiatives, and reach out to our network of members in preparation for an engaging 2023. 

Last month in San Francisco, the annual ASLA conference highlighted some of the important and thoughtful work by landscape architects and related professions. NMASLA was proudly represented by Jitka Dekojova, Kristina Werenko, and myself. The conference served as the venue to unveil an ambitious new commitment by ASLA National - the adoption of the ASLA Climate Action Plan LINK, which sets a vision for 2040 that all landscape architecture projects will simultaneously:

• 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

Landscape professionals in New Mexico are already making strides toward achieving this vision through their diverse projects and leadership. In coordination with ASLA National, who has issued best practice guidance, toolkits, and resources LINK to advance climate action, NMASLA plans to host educational sessions in 2023 that highlight recommendations specific to New Mexico and our region. Stay tuned for further information and please reach out if you would like to be involved!

We look forward to this coming year and how NMASLA can support the broader landscape architecture community. 

Wishing you a happy and healthy holiday season. See you in 2023!

Claudia Meyer Horn

When regenerative design grows from people and place, it strengthens community capacity and resilience. In our planning and design work across the state of New Mexico, we often have limited material resources with which to negotiate complicated challenges. Despite this, we are continuously inspired by the tremendous social capital found even in our smallest, most rural communities, whether it’s energetic volunteers, experienced historians, artists, or other local features and resources. When we can identify and build from existing community assets, we are able to develop authentic and sustainable ways to address needs while also celebrating community history and identity. And who is better able to identify existing resources, issues, and potential solutions than the people who live in that community? 

Groundwork Studio has had the opportunity to explore the potential of participatory mapping and community-led project identification through four projects in Central and Northern NewMexico. These projects were designed to work with community members in the identification of key issues and solutions for flooding, failing infrastructure, pedestrian safety and accessibility, brownfield redevelopment and local economic development. Embedding education and engagement in the planning process can help identify projects with broad-based community support as well as ways the community can move them forward. The following examples are intended to highlight how a participatory process can result in positive outcomes for that particular community was wee as serve a model for other communities.

In October, NMASLA met with Judith Philips at the Xeriscape Demonstration Garden at Osuna and Wyoming in Albuquerque. This garden was installed in the early1980s to show those in Albuquerque what this new type of garden was in the hope that it can be used as a new model for both residential and commercial purposes.  Judith Philips is known as a highly regarded garden designer who has written at least five books about gardening in New Mexico.

The impetus to ask Judith to meet with us was that the garden is in desperate need of some attention, some 30-40 years after completion. This now gives the wrong impression of what a xeric garden can be.  Initially, the garden was carefully maintained by the City of Albuquerque Parks and Open Space.  Recently, it appears to be forgotten with minimal signs of any trimming, weeding, or cultivating.  NMASLA wants to investigate opportunities about restoring the garden so that it can once again be a showcase for this garden type.

In walking the garden with Judith, one of her significant observations was that the plant palette she used back in then has changed.  It’s not so much that the plants have fallen out of her favor, it is that many of the plants selected are no longer tolerant of current weather conditions in Albuquerque.  Plants that were once suitable for Las Cruces and El Paso in the 1980s now easily survive here.  Our 1980s plant palette is now more suitable to the environments of Santa Fe.  So there it is, clear evidence of Climate Change, right here in our gardens.   Another one of her observations was the need to carefully monitor irrigation systems in such gardens.  While some plants need a little water (thus the definition of Xeric = DRY), others need very little after they have been established, and those charged with maintaining the systems need to understand these evolving demands.  

I am constantly finding myself in a discussion with people who think Xeriscape is really Zeroscape, and that once installed these gardens needs NO maintenance.  All gardens need some level of maintenance and care, and it’s time for this demonstration garden to get its fair share.  Over the next year, NMASLA will be working with Judith Phillips and the Xeric Garden Club of Albuquerque to develop a plan for the garden’s rejuvenation.  We will also reach out to the UNM Department of Landscape Architecture as well to involve their students in the process as an amazing learning opportunity and maybe get a little dirt under those fingernails!

PROJECT PROFILE

MRWM Landscape Architect’s El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail Development Concept Plan(the plan) won the 2022 New Mexico Chapter of the American Planning Association: Sustainability Planning Award. The plan provides a vision for the preservation and development of a retracement trail following portions of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro National Historic Trail (El Camino Real NHT or NHT) that are located within Bernalillo County and the City of Albuquerque. Bernalillo County, the City of Albuquerque, and the National Park Service came together to fund this exciting planning effort. 

El Camino Real NHT is rooted in traditional Indigenous trade routes that, with the arrival of Spaniards in the sixteenth century, grew into an expanded global trade network. From Mexico to northern New Mexico, it has brought a diverse range of visitors, traders, pioneers, soldiers, servants, and enslaved people to and from its destinations on either end. With its many travelers, it has brought a mix of cultures and influenced communities along its route.

The plan identifies strategic actions, development projects, and infrastructure improvements needed to create a multimodal path that follows El Camino Real NHT as closely as possible. The goal is to create a continuous path for pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles. The plan includes guidelines and recommendations for the retracement trail, a list of specific amenities, and guidelines for branding, materiality, and design elements to make the trail visible, distinct, and relevant for visitors.

The NHT covers approximately twenty-two miles on either side of the Rio Grande within Bernalillo County. El Camino Real NHT is a braid of routes that shifted up and down the valley with the ever-changing path of the Rio Grande and its frequent floodwaters. It passes through multiple jurisdictions, necessitating thoughtful coordination between agencies. The plan outlines strategies to coordinate with existing trail efforts and to connect to different public and private stakeholders and agencies. Applicable adopted transportation goals, such as Complete Streets Strategies, are considered and integrated in the plan’s recommendations. Lastly, the plan’s objectives and strategies aim to encourage economic development and tourism while paying special attention to social justice and the equitable development of community infrastructure.

• ULI New Mexico - Trends 2023: Retrofitting for the Future January 19, 2023

  Albuquerque NM

• Think Trees February 9-10, 2023 Albuquerque, NM

• Land and Water Summit March 1-3, 2023 Albuquerque, NM