American Society of Landscape Architects

The National Park Service Rivers, Trail, and Conservation Assistance (RTCA) program and the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) formalized a partnership in 2000 to help communities across the nation plan, design, and manage their natural, cultural, and recreation resources. They renewed this agreement in 2010. This national partnership provides collaborative technical assistance to selected RTCA projects and is implemented locally by RTCA staff and ASLA's state chapters. Members of ASLA volunteer their skills and time as part of the organization's community stewardship programs. The service projects offer landscape architects an opportunity to raise public awareness about their profession, and in turn enables RTCA to sponsor professional design expertise that is unavailable or unaffordable to many community-based recreation and conservation efforts. The communities invariably find the combined NPS-ASLA resources are a tremendous catalyst for their projects.

ASLA and NPS Build On 10-Year Community Assistance Partnership

Celebration of a Decade of Community Assistance Partnerships, highlighting the NPS-ASLA partnership (2010)

Read more about the NPS-ASLA partnership in Landscape Architecture Magazine.

Partnership Examples

NPS RTCA and ASLA have partnered to assist a variety of community-based planning and design projects. The stories below profile some of the communities and results that have been supported by the partnership.

You can read the following documents online or download to your hard drive. To open these files, you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader. (Click here to download for free.)

• Community Assistance Partnerships: Celebrating 10 Years



• National Partnership Projects (ID, MT, OR, VA, WA - 2007)


• Keizer Rapids Park (OR - 2006)


• Lake Sawyer Park (WA - 2006)


• Wenatchee Trail Connections (WA - 2005)


• Creek Restoration & Trail System (ID - 2003)


• Moses Lake Healthy Communities Trail Network (WA - 2003)


• San Lorenzo/Branciforte Creek (CA - 2002)


• Northern State Recreation Area (WA - 2001)


• Liberty Lake Trails (WA - 1999)


• Picture ID Neighborhood Strategic Plan (WA - 1998)

Children and parents participate in an NPS RTCA-ASLA design charrette in Alaska.

For more information about ASLA, visit their website.