Call for Comments: Guide for Plant Appraisal, Tenth Edition

The Council of Tree and Landscape Appraisers (CTLA) invites your input on the current tenth edition of the Guide for Plant Appraisal. This public comment period will be open through February 28, 2025.

We encourage all stakeholders to share their feedback by specifying the section in question, stating their comment, proposing a revision for the section, and including a rationale for the suggested change.

Following this public comment period, CTLA will develop the eleventh edition of the Guide for Plant Appraisal. As the representative for the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), I will serve on the Content Review Committee to ensure the interests of landscape architects are integrated into the synthesis of feedback. Our goal is to create a practical and effective resource for analyzing the appraisal value of landscapes.

Input from landscape architects is particularly crucial because the Guide for Plant Appraisal serves as an essential resource for professionals involved in valuing trees and plants within designed landscapes. Whether for litigation, insurance claims, or development planning, the guide provides standardized methodologies that help ensure equitable and consistent valuations. Landscape architects’ unique perspectives on site planning, design, and the role of plants in enhancing built environments are vital to making the next edition a comprehensive and practical tool.

The CTLA is a collaboration of professional organizations dedicated to establishing industry-consensus methodologies for tree and landscape plant valuation, as presented in the Guide for Plant Appraisal.

For more information and to submit comments, please visit the International Society of Arboriculture's website >

Tristan Fields, ASLA, is the owner of Land Meets Water. Tristan is a licensed landscape architect, an ISA Certified Urban Forest Professional Arborist, a Qualified Tree Risk Assessor (TRAQ), a Tree and Plant Appraiser (TPAQ), and a professional horticulturist. With over 25 years of experience working with the natural world, Tristan brings a wealth of expertise to projects at the intersection of design, ecology, and urban forestry.

For more about Tristan, see this previous post on The Field.