ASLA Advocacy Day 2017, the Society’s premier federal advocacy event, brought 178 advocates, including 18 students from across the nation, to Capitol Hill. Participants attended congressional meetings with their legislators with the objective of raising the visibility of the profession among policy makers and their staffs. They also sought to educate them on the many ways that landscape architects provide solutions to some of the problems facing our communities.
During the Advocacy Day Wrap-up Reception, Congressman Earl Blumenauer (OR) highlighted landscape architects’ expertise and ingenuity and their role in rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure. Congressman Blumenauer also urged advocates to take the momentum from Advocacy Day home by inviting policy makers for
site tours of infrastructure projects during the August congressional recess.
The Advocacy Day Wrap-up Reception also included the Advocacy Awards presentation, which recognized and honored ASLA’s outstanding advocates including David Sprunt, ASLA, of the Colorado Chapter and Marsha Lea, ASLA, of the Potomac Chapter, who received the ASLA Advocacy Leadership Award. Leslie Johnson, Student ASLA, of the Minnesota Chapter received the ASLA Rising Star Advocacy Award. In addition, the Arizona Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects received the ASLA Chapter of the Year Advocacy Award.