It is always sad to see our student assistants graduate from LSU and move on to higher and better things. But on the other hand we are so proud to see them go on and start to build a career on the foundation we have been so fortunate to craft. This year Summer Baugh who has assisted us for three and one half years has moved on to a job in Austin, Texas. She is now working with the firm of Bosse Compton & Turner. Also graduating was Camille Seabrook. Camille has accepted a job in her home town of Memphis, Tennessee. It sure was fun having both of them around helping me with my projects. Mary Blakeney who some of you may recall worked as my assistant about six years ago. Mary has returned to LSU to pursue a graduate degree in the School of Architecture. She has worked for several years in Houston, Texas as an interior designer with such noted firms as Ginsler and HOK. We are trying to get her interested in coming back to her old job and specifically to assist us with our work with the LSU Hurricane Center. And finally, we are pleased to notice that Debbie Deubler who worked with us about four years ago has recently graduated from the University of Alabama Medical School in Birmingham, Alabama. She is seeking her first professional positions as a physician’s assistant, or PA. She worked for several years in the heart surgery room of Our Lady of the Lake Hospital in Baton Rouge.

We are pleased to welcome back for another year our newest student assistant. This semester Courtney Bush is working with us. Courtney was last years sophmore winner of the College of Art and Design Student Award. Yes, the top student in the College. This is a rare honor indeed and we are thrilled to have Courtney assisting us. Dan Farrah continues as our web master. Dan graduated a couple of years ago but still assists on a voluntary basis. He works with a local landscape architecture firm but helps us keep our web site in order on a part time basis. Dan loves computers and enjoys working on our web site. He is married to Miss Emly and they have two fine dogs that keep them busy as they get their careers up and running.

One of our main projects this year will be to slightly reorganize the web site. We want to bring more papers on the web site and add more content concerning the ins and outs of landscape law. Look for us to add more photos to the web site showing the results achieved by communities with landscape laws in effect. Last year Prof. Abbey traveled over 13,000 miles in the southeast inspecting communities with landscape laws and now has a database of over 1000 images showing everything from street yards to vehicular area screens on to street tree planting zones and street wall plantings. Look for selected images in the ‘Picture Gallery’ of this site. Also review the paper, Visual Images of Landscape Law found in the ‘Papers’ section of this site.

Another project for the year is to finish a paper being written jointly with landscape administrators from three communities from across the South. Each of these communities have good landscape laws on the books and we want to share that information with others. . Keith Martin from South Lake Texas, Nancy Simion and Pam Lulich from Naples, Collier County , Florida and representatives from Mandeville, Louisiana are all working together to craft a paper telling of the landscape codes in their community. We will be looking for a publisher so if you know someone interested in publishing “Tale of Three Cities, Landscape Codes in the South’ please let us know.

We will also be writing a script and producing a CD educational program that will explain what landscape laws are and why they are important. We hope to have this project finished by next August and may have a few dozen extra copies to give out to people interested in the subject. We are preparing this presentation on behalf of the East Baton Rouge Parish Tree and Landscape Commission who has been working to update the Baton Rouge landscape code. When finished, this will be the first CD program on landscape laws ever created. This project has been funded by a grant from the Louisiana Urban Forestry Council and the Louisiana Department of Agriculture & Forestry. Assisting on this project will be Prof. Sissi Foster of Michigan State University. Sissi was trained at LSU and wrote her Master’s Thesis many years ago. She is working to bring the message of good landscape laws to communities in the North who have no experience with such a ‘Southern thang.’

Later in the year we have agreed to produce an on-line “desktop seminar” on landscape law for national distribution by the American Society of Landscape Architects. This seminar will be produced on the internet using a live telephone conference call to join students to the instructor. The web site will be used to house a prepared visual program that will be shared across the nation. This program sponsored by the ASLA is approved for continuing education credit. Landscape architects, planners, arborists and others will find it suitable for CEU credit.

Prof. Buck Abbey,ASLA, paAIA
Landscape Ordinance Research Project
Louisiana State University