From the Hill: Landscape

from The Landscape Professional May/June 2020

by National Association of Landscape Professionals

From the CEO: Thoughts on

Landscape Industry Deemed Essential – NALP Advocating for Your Continued Operation During COVID-19

By Andrew Bray VP, Government Relations

This article was written on April 28, 2020

IT HAS BEEN A FRENETIC TIME FOR THE LANDSCAPE INDUSTRY

advocating to assure federal, state and local officials that landscape services are indeed “essential” and must be performed under any order to “lockdown” or “shelter in place.” Beginning with California issuing the first executive order on March 18 followed a rapid succession over the course of the next two weeks in which every state in the United States, including D.C., issued some sort of order limiting businesses and/or social gatherings.

Complicating the issue further was the release of the Department of Homeland Security Memorandum on Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers During COVID-19 Response on March 19. While this version of the memo did not specifically enumerate “landscapers” it did include the landscape industry by inference because the landscape industry plays a critical role in providing “services that

are necessary to maintain the safety, sanitation and essential operation of residence and businesses.”

The DHS memo is designed to be only “advisory,” but many states promptly adopted the memo and crafted orders that either specifically included landscapers or did so by inference. NALP continued to beat the drum on behalf of the industry in all 50 states on the essential nature of the industry and also launched several grassroots campaigns and published a website to provide updates on the status of landscape operations in each state along with rationale to defend the essential nature of the landscape industry based on each order issued by a state. BUT to reduce ambiguity or further confusion NALP was actively communicating

Ess

with DHS about including “landscapers” in any future updates of the list.

On March 28, DHS released Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers During COVID-19 Response version 2.0, which specifically included “landscapers.” This was a significant win for the landscape industry and assisted in solidifying the essential nature of the landscape industry with federal, state and local officials. Since version 2.0, a third version was released on April 17 and continues to include “landscapers” as essential.

One of the most important components of all the orders mandated by the states or localities is to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 by requiring strict safety protocols that must be practiced by all business that are deemed essential. NALP promptly provided Operational Guidelines for the Landscape industry during COVID-19. The guidelines are based on recommendations provided by the federal government and are updated when new information is provided to better protect landscape employees and reduce any transmission with landscape customers or the general public. These guidelines were used to demonstrate the responsible practices of the landscape industry with state governments and should be rigidly adhered to because the landscape industry is being closely watched by policy makers, our customers and the general public. Remember the old saying “one bad apple ruins the bunch.”

While we are certainly not out of the woods yet on COVID-19 and the ability of the landscape industry to continue to operate as an essential business, the path ahead is promising. States have recognized the essential nature of the landscape industry and are now taking the next steps of beginning to relax orders on all businesses but we must remain hyper vigilant through the remainder of the spring and into the summer as fears grow over a second wave in the fall.

The success NALP has had in advocating on behalf of the industry was only possible with the tremendous support and participation by the entire industry. The amount of energy and activity at the grassroots level with individual companies, state associations and other allied industries and associations has been unprecedented for the landscape industry. NALP’s ability to collaborate and cooperate with our partner state associations was a pivotal component of these positive outcomes.

NALP is confident that even in these chaotic times that we will get through this by working together. There will continue to be obstacles and we will not stop advocating on your behalf. The path forward is clear, landscape services are indeed essential, strict COVID-19 safety measures must be rigorously implemented and as an industry we are much stronger together working towards one common goal for the entire landscape industry. TLP