Landscape Architects Speak Up for Section 106

At the U.S. Capitol, ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen, Hon. ASLA, urged the Senate to reject BAAJA and protect Section 106.

On Monday, landscape architects joined advocates from across the preservation community at the U.S. Capitol to urge the Senate to vote no on the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026 (BAAJA) and leave Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act untouched. Approximately 800 Americans gathered in the bright fall sun today on the West Front Lawn of the United States Capitol for "106 Strong: The Rally for History, Culture, and Sovereignty," a demonstration of national unity in defense of historic places, Tribal sovereignty, and the public's right to participate in federal decisions affecting their communities.

ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen, Hon. ASLA, spoke for the more than 17,000 landscape architects who design our highways, transit lines, parks, and stormwater systems. His message centered on something every landscape architect understands: sometimes the best design is knowing what not to change.

Click play to watch ASLA CEO Torey Carter-Conneen, Hon. ASLA, speak on behalf of ASLA.

For 60 years, Section 106 has required federal agencies to stop and consider the effects of their projects on historic places before they act. It brings State and Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, local governments, and the public into the process early, while plans can still change. Title III of BAAJA would rewrite that process. It would narrow the projects subject to review, limit when preservation officers must be consulted, impose deadlines for finishing reviews, restrict what counts as harm to a historic place, and limit the public's ability to challenge decisions in court.

Taken together, those changes would shift Section 106 from looking before acting to acting first. As Torey reminded the crowd, that's a trade landscape architects know is never worth it.

Every project begins on paper, and paper is where problems are cheapest to solve. A review that flags a historic site or a sensitive landscape early lets designers adjust a route, shift a footprint, or protect a stand of trees with nothing more than a revised drawing. Skip that review, and the same problem turns up during construction, when it means stop-work orders, redesigns, and lawsuits, and when some damage can't be reversed at all. A tree canopy that took a century to grow, a burial ground, or a view that defines a community can't be put back once it's gone. Section 106 isn't what slows projects down. Landscape architects work with it every day, and the real bottleneck is understaffed permitting agencies. The answer is to staff those agencies, not to silence the people who know and love these places.

Landscape architects showed up, spoke up, and stood together for the places that can't be replaced. The next step is to take action by sending a message to your Senators to vote NO on this bill.