Tom Hand, a LARP alumnus and the Vermont ASLA president and climate action committee chair, was interviewed for a new article in Landscape Architecture Magazine!
Tom and three other landscape architects based in Vermont talk about last summer’s catastrophic flooding and how the state’s unique culture and topography could be both a limitation and a strength in a climate-plagued future. Landscape architects and planners, they agree, can all play a pivotal role in helping Vermont's communities and landscapes build resiliency to climate change.
"We recently experienced another catastrophic flooding event throughout New England this December as the LAM article was hitting the streets. Maine, New Hampshire, and Western Massachusetts tv also felt the effects of the storm,” says Tom. “It's critical to remember that this issue is not Vermont's problem alone that stops at the border- we're all part of individual ecoregions across the country, which is how ASLA's Climate Action Plan is organized. As landscape architects we need to continue to advocate for landscape and nature-based solutions to help reduce the impacts of storm events on our rivers.”
Read "Prepared to Change" (interview by Jennifer Reut) here.
Photo 2: A multi-family residential development in Stowe, VT on a steep slope. Tom Hand and SiteForm Studio worked to identify opportunities to slow and mitigate stormwater from the impervious uphill while also bringing back the site ecology and habitat from the cleared site; aerial by Dana Allen, Fluid State Consulting
Photo 3: A small residential garden incorporating a small rain garden that treats and holds surface runoff from the patio and roof above; photo by Tom Hand and SiteForm Studio.