I am urging the Board to continue licensure for Landscape Architects in Virginia for a number of reasons:

• Landscape architects directly impact public health, safety, and welfare. Licensure is the most appropriate form of regulation to ensure that the public is adequately protected.
• Licensure of landscape architects ensures that professionals are qualified by virtue of their education, experience, and examination.
• Licensure of landscape architects ensures that untrained individuals are prevented from engaging in professional practice that substantially (or significantly) impacts public health, safety and welfare. Licensed landscape architects fulfill educational training and examination requirements that prepare professionals to protect the public from both physical and monetary harm.
• Landscape architects are called upon for complex services that require highly technical skills, making it difficult for prospective clients to evaluate the competency of professionals. Licensure as a measure of competence can assist consumers in identifying appropriate professionals for design services.

Additionally, I am urging the Board to continue licensure for Certified Professional Wetland Delineator in Virginia for a number of reasons:

• CPWD’s directly impact public health, safety, and welfare. Licensure is the most appropriate form of regulation to ensure that the public is adequately protected.
• Licensure of CPWD’s ensures that professionals are qualified by virtue of their education, experience, and examination.
• Licensure of CPWD’s ensures that qualified individuals are available to provide qualified professional practices that substantially (or significantly) impact public health, safety and welfare. Licensed CPWD’s fulfill educational training and examination requirements that prepare professionals to protect the public from both unethical conduct and monetary harm.
• CPWD’s are called upon for complex services that require highly technical skills, making it difficult for prospective clients to evaluate the competency of professionals. Licensure as a measure of competence can assist consumers in identifying appropriate professionals for professional services.
• The scope of CPWD’s practice includes expertise and knowledge in soil science, botany, hydrology, and ecology, as well as stormwater and erosion, Virginia specific wetland resources definitions and regulations that are found nowhere else in the nation, and all work that localities and federal agencies require to be evaluated by licensed professionals.