Southern California ASLA

LARE 4: Grading, Drainage and Storm Water Management (Part 1)
2025-02-21 12:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Online Webinar
Cost: $626 for two days
Register here: https://www.uclaextension.edu/lare-prep

LARE 4: Grading, Drainage and Storm Water Management (Part 2)
2025-02-22 08:00 - 17:00 | Online Webinar
Cost: $626 for both days (Feb 21 and Feb 22)
Register here: https://www.uclaextension.edu/lare-prep

LARE 3: Construction Documentation and Administration
2025-02-23 08:00 - 17:00 | Online Webinar
Cost: $357
Register here: https://www.uclaextension.edu/lare-prep

USGBC Wildfire Defense Certificate Training
2025-02-25 16:30 - 19:00
Wildfire Defense Certificate Training – Landscape Pros
Online Event
A 150-minute training on fire risk reduction and community safety through landscaping.
Reserve Here

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2025 ASLA SoCal Emerging Professional Committee (EPC) Virtual Kick-Off Event: March Lunch Bunch
2025-03-05 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual
We will officially kick-off our programs for this year with our 2025 Virtual Kick-Off Event on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 from 12-1pm Pacific. Join us for a virtual Lunch Bunch to discuss programs and opportunities for our ASLA SoCal Emerging Professionals Committee in 2025, followed by a conversation with our 2025 ASLA SoCal President Scott Rice, ASLA, PLA, LEED AP, President at Community Works Design Group in Riverside, CA! Scott will share about his background, his practice, and his goals for 2025 with ASLA SoCal, and also open up to questions and discussion with our Emerging Professionals! This event is FREE and open to all ASLA SoCal EPs (Student ASLA, Assoc. ASLA, and ASLA members), and we hope to see you on Zoom next Wednesday:

Wednesday, March 5th, 2025 | 12-1pm PST (Virtual)

Zoom Meeting ID: 883 3455 0920

Zoom Passcode: [REDACTED]

Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88334550920?pwd=[REDACTED]

Decarbonizing the Design Process: A Phase by Phase Approach for Landscape Architects
2025-03-06 10:00 - 11:00
Thursday, March 6, 2025| 1:00 – 2:00 PM EST
The ASLA guide Decarbonizing the Design Process offers a phase-by-phase structure to decarbonize design through big ideas, strategies, and best practices. This webinar will explore the guide, with its high-level approach that can be implemented regardless of project type, scope, and scale.

ASLA Honor and Merit Awards - Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
2025-03-08 09:00 - 14:00 | Cal Poly SLO
Our 2025 esteemed CPSLO jurors are:
Brian Brodersen, ASLA, Principal/Owner of Brodersen Associates
Baxter Miller, FASLA, President of BMLA
Eric JH Berg, ASLA, Principal of Pacific Coast Land Design, Inc
Dan Veyna, ASLA, Principal Landscape Architect of Sierra Designs, Inc.

Fire Resilience through Grassland Restoration and Regenerative Grazing
2025-04-02 12:00 - 13:00 | Virtual Webinar
Following the Los Angeles fires, concerns about the fuel loads of invasive grasses has inspired discussion around restoring grasslands in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI). While some consider the endeavor too costly and requiring extensive management, others question why this isn’t a more widespread practice. We invite you to hear Channel Islands Restoration and Cuyama Lamb discuss the realities, potentials, and constraints of grassland restoration and regenerative grazing as a means to enhance ecological fire resilience.
Channel Islands Restoration, based in Santa Barbara, was established to protect rare and endangered plants and animals by restoring habitats in sensitive and unique natural areas on the California Channel Islands and the adjacent mainland. They have undertaken significant work in invasive plant removal, including efforts to reduce fuel loads. In 2019, they initiated a research project at San Marcos Foothills Preserve. and Cuyama Lamb has partnered with them to implement regenerative grazing. The goal was to determine if grazing could benefit the native grassland while reducing wildfire risk. The project proved successful and the Fire Marshall of Santa Barbara County Fire credited with buffering t the surrounding neighborhood during the 2019 Cave Fire. Lauren Harris, Staff Ecologist for Channel Islands Restoration, and Jack Anderson, founder of Cuyama Lamb, will discuss their methodologies and lessons learned as they continue managing the grasslands at San Marcos Foothills.
Lauren received a Bachelor of Science in Ecology and Evolution and a Master of Environmental Science & Management from the University of California, Santa Barbara. During her schooling, Lauren conducted research on a broad range of topics from wildfire-related seed germination for California chaparral restoration to the effects of climate change on habitat fragmentation in the Southeast. Lauren is currently the Staff Ecologist for Channel Islands Restoration (CIR) where she directs ecological research, develops and manages habitat restoration projects, and conducts community education and outreach. She has worked at CIR since 2023 and has experience in a variety of habitats including chaparral, grasslands, coastal sage scrub, oak woodlands, tidal wetlands, and sand dunes. Much of her time is spent at the San Marcos Foothills Preserve on management and restoration projects including the Chumash Ethnobotanical Garden, the Coyote Springs wetland restoration, and the prescribed herbivory program.
Jack Anderson co-founded Cuyama Lamb with his wife, Jenya Schneider, in 2018, with the mission of providing ecological services and restoring native California grasslands. Over the past six years, they have focused heavily on fire fuel management and weed mitigation. Starting in 2019, they participated in the native grassland management program at San Marcos Foothills, where they helped develop the management protocol in collaboration with Channel Islands Restoration and implemented grazing impacts up to twice a year. Through this program, they have observed the exciting ecological benefits of their efforts, which align well with important fire mitigation goals. Additionally, the local communities have expressed delight in seeing their lands reintegrated with animals as ecological stewards. Besides their ecological work, Cuyama Lamb also produces high-quality lamb meat and fine wool products.

REGISTER HERE

ExCom Meeting
2025-04-09 17:30 - 19:00 | Virtual
Monthly business meeting of the Chapter’s Executive Committee.

Happy Passover
2025-04-12
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Climate Action Symposium - ASLA Sierra Chapter
2025-04-18 08:30 - 18:30
Registration is open for the Climate Action Symposium hosted by ASLA Sierra Chapter. Join us for a day-long interactive, multidisciplinary experience where designers, state and local agencies, academics, and community leaders will converge to share actionable strategies to further climate solutions.
This event will be an exchange of ideas and opportunities, uniting voices of those committed to making a difference. Register now to learn, share, connect and strategize for meaningful change!

REGISTER HERE

Designing for Resilience With Shalini Vajjhala
2025-04-18 12:00 - 13:00 | USC School of Architecture Harris 101
Climate resilience is often narrowly framed around avoiding the worst harms of climate change. In this talk, Shalini will offer a broader perspective on how designing for resilience can help expand our ambitions for our public infrastructure systems — creating beautiful spaces that generate multiple social, economic, and ecosystem benefits and protect against that ‘once in a thousand years’ event. She will highlight examples of projects from across the US and show how public infrastructure design, planning, and funding processes can be adapted to serve communities’ deepest needs. She will also share how her early architecture training has shaped and carried through her career in public policy, project finance, and community engagement.
About Shalini Vajjhala
Shalini Vajjhala, PhD is the Executive Director of PRE Collective and a nationally recognized infrastructure and climate resilience expert with 20 years of experience designing, funding, and financing community-centered resilient infrastructure solutions. Over the last decade, she founded and led the design firm re:focus partners and co-founded The Atlas, an online platform for local government collaboration and innovation.
Previously, Shalini served as Special Representative in the Office of Administrator Lisa Jackson at the Environmental Protection Agency. In this position, she led the US-Brazil Joint Initiative on Urban Sustainability (JIUS) announced in March 2011 by Presidents Obama and Rousseff. She also served as Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Office of International & Tribal Affairs at the US EPA and as Deputy Associate Director for Energy and Climate at the White House Council on Environmental Quality. She joined the Obama Administration from the environmental think-tank Resources for the Future, where she was awarded a patent for her climate adaptation mapping work.
Shalini received her B.Arch in Architecture and PhD in Engineering & Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University. She was a visiting associate professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) from 2013-2014, where she designed and taught courses on International Environmental Diplomacy and Case Studies in Sustainable Development. She is currently a Board Member of Smart Growth America and a nonresident senior fellow with the Brookings Metro Program.
www.precollective.org
Learn More Here about program and registration info

Happy Easter
2025-04-20

Resilient Regenerative Firescaping
2025-04-23 12:00 - 13:00 | Online Webinar
Douglas Kent, author of Firescaping: Protecting your home with a fire-resistant landscape (2nd Ed.)and Ecological Land Management, will discuss comprehensive best practices in regenerative landscaping, focused on reducing fire hazards and preparing cities and large property owners for safety before, during, and after a firestorm. Not your typical firescaping approach, he will discuss how strengthening our shared connections to our landscapes improves our overall resilience to our ever changing climate.

Douglas Kent is an author, activist, educator, and specialist in ecological land management. He is the Principal of Douglas Kent + Associates and Adjunct Professor at the John Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies.

Since 2008 Kent has taught a variety of land management courses at Cal Poly Pomona. He is the author of a variety of books, including Firescaping: Protecting your home with a fire-resistant landscape (2nd Ed.); Foraging Southern California: 118 nutritious, tasty and abundant foods; California Friendly: A Maintenance Guide for Landscapers, Gardeners and Land Managers; Ocean Friendly Gardens; Firescaping, A New Era of Gardening; and Ecological Land Management. Kent has had over 50 articles published in various newspapers and magazines including CoastKeeper Magazine, Fine Gardening, Los Angeles Times, Marin Independent Journal, Orange County Register, and the Southern Sierran.
Kent has been working in California’s landscapes for over 40 years and his designs and projects have been featured in publications across the nation, including Los Angeles Times, Fine Gardening, Sunset Magazine, HGTV, National Wildlife, and CNN Comcast. Kent received both his Master degrees from Cal Poly Pomona, one in Regenerative Studies and the other Landscape Architecture.

REGISTER HERE

Emerging Professional Committee Volunteer Day @ Los Angeles Regional Food Bank
2025-04-26 09:00 - 13:00 | Los Angeles Regional Food Bank Volunteer Center, 1734 E. 41st Street, Los Angeles, California, 90058
NOTE: You must be available for the entire volunteer session, please arrive on time for check-in, minimum age requirement is 18 (no exceptions), and all volunteers must wear closed-toe/closed-heel shoes.
REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED (20 people maximum) – This event is geared toward Emerging Professionals, but open to any ASLA SoCal member (Student, Associate, Affiliate or Full ASLA Member)!
TO REGISTER: Please email ASLA SoCal Emerging Professionals Committee Chair, Jared McKnight @ jarededgarmcknight@gmail.com for the link to register, and follow the steps on the LA Regional Food Bank registration site.
Description: In response to the wildfires that first erupted in January 2025 and spread to different areas throughout LA County, the LA Regional Food Bank has increased its operations and program activity to respond to those impacted by the fires. The ASLA SoCal Emerging Professionals Committee is excited to partner with the LA Regional Food Bank to offer this volunteer opportunity to support their efforts in providing meaningful resources and services to those experiencing food insecurity, and to those affected by the wildfires. This event is geared toward Emerging Professionals, but open to any ASLA SoCal member (max. 20 people – first come, first serve to register, email jarededgarmcknight@gmail.com for instructions to register by April 21).
WHEN: Saturday, April 26, 2025 from 9am-1pm (check-in at 8:40am) @ Los Angeles Regional Food Bank Volunteer Center: 1734 E. 41st Street, Los Angeles, CA 90058

USC School of Architecture Presents: Kotchakorn Voraakhom
2025-04-28 13:00 - 14:30 | USC School of Architecture, Verle Annis Gallery
Kotchakorn Voraakhom is a pioneering Thai landscape architect renowned for her expertise in designing public spaces that address the climate crisis in dense urban environments. She led the creation of Bangkok’s first critical green infrastructure project, Chulalongkorn Centenary Park (top left), and has since brought her vision to life through several groundbreaking works, including the Thammasat Urban Farm Rooftop, Asia’s largest urban farming green roof (bottom left) and the Chao Phraya
Sky Park, the world’s first bridge park spanning a river in a capital city. Learn More Here

More info and registration details here

Mother's Day
2025-05-11

ExCom Face to Face Meeting
2025-05-17 08:30 - 13:00 | Community Works Design Group, Riverside
Spring meeting of the Executive Leadership

USGBC California 2025 Conference
2025-05-21 - 2025-05-22
For the first time, USGBC California is bringing the state’s leading green building conference to San Francisco, where green building pros, sustainability rockstars, and change-makers from across the state will come together under one roof.

Expect an electrifying day filled with fresh ideas, game-changing insights, and endless opportunities to connect with industry leaders. Whether you’re just dipping your toes into sustainability or you’re a seasoned expert, this is your chance to learn, share, and make an impact!

Pre-conference workshops + happy hour on May 21st

Followed by a full day of learning on May 22nd

The Nature-based Solutions track is back this year with a great lineup:
9-10am “Where Land Meet Architecture: Understanding the Potential of Biogenic Carbon” by Sasaki
11:15-12:15 “Carbon Capture by Design: Turning Sites into Climate Solutions” by SWA
2-3pm “Sequestering Carbon, Agriculture and Natural Resources” by Glenda Humiston
3:15-4:15 “De-Pave Park; Quantifying Urban Resilience: Analysing Green Infrastructure and Green Building Adoption in Washington DC by Jamie Phillips from CMG Landscape Architecture

#usgbc #greenbuilding #greenbuildingcalifornia #greenercalifornia #usgbcca

Happy Memorial Day
2025-05-26

2025 Quality of Life Design Awards - Call for Entries
2025-06-02
It’s finally here! The Call for Entries is open for the 2025 Quality of Life Design Awards. This year’s theme, Regeneration: “Cultivating the Future of Landscape Architecture”.
Please review the award submission information closely. There are some changes this year along with the addition of two categories, so be sure to check them out!
For all the guidelines and need to know information, click the button below.
Entries will be due no later than August 13, 2025 @ 5:00 p.m. Awards will be presented on Thursday evening, September 25th on the Water Court Plaza at the Omni Hotel at California Plaza in Los Angeles.
Continue to watch your email for award updates over the next couple of months.
Questions? Reach out to: awards@socal-asla.org

ExCom Meeting
2025-06-18 17:30 - 19:00 | Virtual
Monthly business meeting of the Executive Committee (Virtual)

Sitting Still with Laurie Olin - A Film
2025-06-19 17:30 - 20:30 | LPA Office in San Diego
ASLA San Diego invites ASLA SoCal to our event this week on Thursday, June 19 at 6:30 pm for a film screening of: Sitting Still with Laurie Olin. “SITTING STILL” is an original documentary that focuses on one of the world’s greatest living urban designers and his profoundly social vision. Hailed as a modern-day Olmsted, Laurie Olin has transformed the design of public space and paved the way for future design leaders.
This is an in-person event in San Diego. It is free to ASLA members and $15 for non-members. To register, click here: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/ev/reg/nqhybdf/lp/af3074ea-d547-4d51-bf88-e74b1701e884

We would love to have SoCal members and landscape architecture community attend this exciting event!

Firescaping Certification for Designers
2025-06-21 09:00 - 15:00 | Debs Park, Audubon Center
Immersive, hands-on learning experience provides a solid foundation in landscaping for fire protection. Learners will gain practical skills that have immediate application. They will be able to perform risk assessments, articulate best practices, and prescribe remedies that provide long-term care and protection. Participants will also gain a professional distinction and certification, providing an advantage in an uncertain economy.
Instructor: Doug Kent, MS, MLA
Biography here
Cost

ASLA Members
$75.00 – Early Bird Cost until May 31st
$125.00 – After May 31st
Non Members
$125 – Early Bird Cost until May 31st
$175 – After May 31st
Registration Here

Schedule:
9:00 to 9:20 am: Housekeeping and Introductions
9:20 to 10:00: Lecture
* Types of properties
* Fire-hardened structures
* First Five Feet: The Dos and Don’ts
* Emergency Access: Driveway, pathway
* The essentials of State Law and Fire Codes
10:00 to 10:10: Break
10:10 to 11:00: Exercise (Break up in groups of 3, and do an assessment of buildings, first 5 feet, and emergency access)
11:00 to 11:10: Break
11:10 to 11:45: Lecture
* Roads
* Landscape Features: Fences, hedges, shade structures
* Plants: Characteristics, examples, pathways
* Mulch: Types, problems, uses
Noon to 12:30: Lunch (lunch provided)
12:3o to 1:15: Exercise (Break up in groups of 3 and do an assessment and make recommendations for plants and shade structures)
1:15 to 1:45: Lecture
* Emergency Watering Systems: Preventative and protective
* Creating rituals of care that ensure long-term fire protection
1:45 to 2:20: Exercise (Break into groups of 3 and design and share a remedy to a base plan provided.)
2:20 to 2:30: Closing (Say in touch, strengthening community, sharing our work)
Topics:

Types of Properties: Small residential, commercial, rural residential
Fire-Hardened Structures
First Five Feet
Access: Roads, driveways, pathways
The basics of State Law and Fire Codes
Landscape Features: Shade structures, fences, hedges
Plants: Characteristics, pathways, mulch
Emergency Watering Systems: Preventative and protective
Creating an ethic of care and protection

Learn Objectives

Be able to prioritize fire protection design and maintenance strategies
Be able to list California Fire Code
Be able to design less flammable landscape features, such as fences, hedges, and shade structures
Be able to make plant choices based on plant characteristics and maintenance demands.
Be able to discuss different landscape types and their unique challenges.
Be able to diagram an emergency watering system.
Be able to appreciate the role of maintenance in ensuring long-term protection.

Chapter Election of Leadership
2025-07-01 - 2025-07-30

ExCom Meeting
2025-07-09 17:30 - 19:00, 2025-08-13 17:30 - 19:00, 2025-09-10 17:30 - 19:00 | Virtual
Monthly business meeting of the Executive Committee

42nd Annual CLASS Fund Golf Tournament
2025-07-14 08:00 - 17:00
Registration + Sponsorship Info HERE
Event Flyer HERE

Quality of Life Awards - Deadline extended to August 15
2025-08-13
Visit: https://socal-asla.org/about-the-awards/
