Making a Difference, One Person at a Time

Landscape Training in the Time of COVID

Snapshot: Nine years ago, Wetlands Watch started on a journey to expand the use of nature-based approaches to water and shoreline management. Over a long and winding path, with many partners along the way, we are now seeing this idea become reality. The Chesapeake Bay Landscape Professional program (CBLP) has trained hundreds of landscape professionals in green infrastructure practices, forming the base of a resilience workforce. Leading this effort is Wetlands Watch’s Assistant Director, Shereen Hughes.

Backstory: Over eight years ago, Wetlands Watch conducted a study on how to expand the use of best management practices (BMP’s) on private property to help meet Chesapeake Bay cleanup goals. We identified tens of millions of dollars-worth of BMP’s installed on private property but could not tell if they were installed or maintained properly - or if they still existed at all! We saw great potential in expanding these private property stormwater management practices, but there were many barriers.

The Report identified the need for a statewide collaborative summit of stakeholders from government at all levels, the private sector, academic institutions, and nonprofit organizations. In partnership with the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, the UVA Institute for Engagement and Negotiation (IEN), and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay, a summit was held in February 2013 with 180 people in attendance over 2 days. One of the key findings in the Summit Report is the need to, “build an effective and integrated network of powerful water quality and stormwater experts and advocates – or a ‘Community of Practice.’”

This concept was built upon over the years, in partnership with the Chesapeake Conservation Landscaping Council (CCLC), University of Maryland Sea Grant and Cooperative Extension, and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources/Habitat Partners. The first years were spent obtaining funding, forming steering and technical advisory committees, holding open forums to gather more input from stakeholders and forming a network organization capable of developing and delivering a training and certification process to people who design, install, and maintain stormwater practices using nature-based approaches. The next task was to create and pilot the training and certification process, learning objectives, key references, training videos and workshops, and exams. The result is a two-level certification process. Level 1 is a baseline credential in design, installation, and maintenance of sustainable landscapes, with emphasis on how to properly maintain stormwater best management practices. Level 2 is an advanced sustainable landscape and green infrastructure design and/or installation credential.

What has emerged is a robust program, currently working in Maryland, Virginia, District of Columbia, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey to train and certify practitioners in an emerging green infrastructure workforce. An expansion into Delaware is planned. Since the formal initiation of the CBLP program, 660 people have achieved Level 1 certification and 81 people are Level 2-certified (as of November 2020). The program is evolving into one which involves cross training of a landscape workforce with engineering, environmental science, planning and several other professions to bring a new level or professional rigor to green infrastructure practices.

A mature and growing program, CBLP is nearing financial self-sufficiency as landscape professionals come to value the training and see the marketing advantage from a CBLP certification. The program is also moving to address new areas of opportunity in workforce entry-level and career advancement training needs with our youth training program (CBLP-Associate), our stormwater maintenance crew (CBLP-Crew) certificate program, and a newly launched riparian buffer (CBLP-Buffers) certificate program.

In 2020, Wetlands Watch and our CBLP partners practiced organizational resilience as we adapted and re-tooled our program to address the restrictions imposed by the COVID pandemic. We converted some of the basic education modules to on-line instruction, we purchased equipment to allow safe/socially distanced field education (such as being practiced in the picture above), and have continued to grow the program and our network despite the challenges of COVID.

We have also developed new partnerships, such as the work with the James River Association to form a Living Shoreline Collaborative to expand the use of living shorelines in Virginia. This work, begun in 2019, involves contractor trainings, living shoreline installations, and the development of a statewide collaborative of practitioners and stakeholders working on living shorelines.

Now in our eighth year of effort, Wetlands Watch wants to thank our early supporters and funders with the Campbell Foundation, the Virginia Environmental Endowment, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. More recently this work was expanded in Southeastern Virginia thanks to a generous grant from RISE, the Norfolk-based entity seeking to develop a resilience workforce. And our partners mentioned before - the Chesapeake Conservation Landscaping Council (CCLC), Maryland Cooperative Extension, Maryland Sea Grant, Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources/Habitat Partners. And finally, a special thanks goes out to David Hirschman of Hirschman Water and Environment, our training and technical partner who has contributed expertise and endless hours towards the development and delivery of all our training programs.

This has been a carefully developed effort, a series of partnerships involving a range of supporters all dedicated to our goal of developing a consistently trained, resilience workforce, one person at a time.