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Going to Arlington National Cemetery is like coming home for the landscape professionals who volunteer each year at Renewal and Remembrance.
Heading to the Hill.
Discussions centered around pesticide regulations and the H-2B program, specifically, at NALP’s annual Legislative Days where landscapers visit their representatives and advocate for the issues most important to them. Those who spoke with their congressmen and women said that a big goal of the visits is just to keep green industry issues at the forefront.
Robert Mann, corporate agronomist at Lawn Dawg in Nashua, New Hampshire, met with both the House and Senate Agricultural committees, which gave him a chance to give a firsthand account of the realities he deals with.
“We’re able to open another window to their understanding because they are constantly under the barrage of environmental activists as professionals impressing on people their agenda,” he said. “Well, we’re actually out there doing it.”
Josh Denison, vice president of labor and human resources at Denison Landscaping in Fort Washington, Maryland, spoke with five different offices regarding the H-2B program.
He even brought three of his H-2B workers with him. Since his companies uses more than 250 temporary workers through the program, it’s an issue that hits close to home. This is his 10th year attending the event and he said it’s important to show his conviction on the issue.
“I’m coming to speak for the H-2B program and the validity of the program, along with being able to showcase some of the work my teams are doing,” he said.
Putting a face on the industry.
The NALP set up a new event this year, the Landscape Learning Lab for Legislators, to showcase the benefits of the lawn care and landscape industry to congress members and their staff.
Five stations offered attendees information on topics from pollinators to H-2B to the cooling properties of lawns. Missy Henrickson, NALP vice president of public affairs, said the organization included visual aids to help visitors remember what they’ve seen. For example, headphones sat on one table to symbolize the noise-reducing properties of lawns.
“It’s a variety of different teaching objectives we’re trying to communicate to staffers,” she said. “And for our members, one of the things we want them to understand is NALP is helping to educate elected officials about the important work that landscape professionals do in their communities.”
“It’s been incredibly successful,” said Jim Cali, principal at McFarlin Stanford. Cali, a former landscape company owner, now represents people from all over the country, advocating specifically for H-2B and pesticide regulation reform. “We’ve had a lot of great conversations. We provide a sustainable approach to landscaping as a whole and how this is not a bunch of non-professionals just in a truck. This whole industry – there’s a science to what we do. We’re professionals who are educated in horticulture and irrigation and things like that.”
NALP put out invitations to everyone on the House and Senate Agriculture committees and their staff members and Vice President of Government Relations Paul Mendhelson said the turnout was great.
“It’s a way for us to start to put a face on the industry,” he said. “Staff in congress, they have to really understand our issues for us to be able to be effective and the best way for that to happen is for them to interact with our members. It’s a way to make inroads and build a better understanding of what this profession is all about.
“We want to show that we care about the environment, we are doing things to help pollinators, we’re being responsible and we’re promoting information about the importance of lawns and landscaping and how it’s beneficial to everybody.”
And NALP is making plans to take it to the state level, and even LANDSCAPES, an educational event held in conjunction with GIE+EXPO and Hardscape North America. Cali said NALP is hoping to both show what the organization does for the industry and attract more attendees to Leg Day.
Henrickson said NALP will tweak the event each year depending on the most pressing issues in the industry.
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