The challenge of finding seasonal workers in the landscape industry and other seasonal industries has been an ongoing challenge for at least a couple of decades.

Mari Medrano, human resources director at CoCal Landscape, Denver, has more than 20 years’ experience working with foreign workers on H-2B visas. In spring 2021, Medrano wrote the article, H-2B: An Employer Perspective for Turf magazine and in spring 2022 her article received first place from the Turf and Ornamental Communicators Association.

This editorial/opinion article highlighted her real-life experiences, and subsequent learning, from 20-plus years of working with foreign workers on H-2B visas. She said the process is time-consuming and there are no guarantees a company will be granted workers from the program. “If you think you know what you’re doing, this program—with constantly changing government regulations and attacks from H-2B opponents—will knock you to your knees. It’s anguishing, hair-pulling, frustrating and dumbfounding, but also very fulfilling and rewarding,” she wrote.

In the face of drought and climate change and to ensure Colorado has enough water to meet all the needs of today and the future, Water Education Colorado has spearheaded Water ’22, a year-long water education campaign lead by @watereducationCO that asks Coloradans to make a pledge to reduce their water consumption by 22 gallons (or more) each day.

Simple actions can save at least 22 gallons per person per day. According to the numbers, if every Coloradan saved 22 gallons a day for a year, the savings translate to 150,000 acre-feet or the volume of Horsetooth Reservoir in Fort Collins! Small changes help stretch our scarce water supplies and help preserve our agriculture, parks and open space, fish and wildlife habitat, recreation, drinking water and industrial and commercial sectors.

Water ’22 calls upon all Coloradans to work together to ensure clean water is available to support the state’s water uses.

Beyond each individual, we have a duty within the green industry to be good stewards of water. One of the ways ALCC is helping support this campaign is with its Sustainable Landscape Management (SLM) program, which educates landscape professionals in the public and private sectors about sustainable, water-conserving landscape management principles.