UNM SA+P Professor Anthony Fettes receives CELA Landscape Research Award

University of New Mexico landscape architecture assistant professor Anthony Fettes recently received the 2025 Outstanding Paper Award from the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture.

He was awarded for his paper, "Expanding Environmental Literacy through Applied Observations in Urban Ecology," published in CELA's 2026 Landscape Research Record. CELA is the professional association for programs of higher learning in landscape architecture in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

"Fettes' work sensitively combines ecological knowledge, experience working with indigenous communities, and creating student experiential learning opportunities," said Catherine Page Harris, chair of landscape architecture. We are so glad to see his work honored and his vision supported by CELA."

Fettes was one of 32 awardees recognized among their peers at the 2026 CELA conference in Cincinnati. He has been a faculty member at the UNM School of Architecture + Planning since 2019.

"I never set out to write an award-winning paper; rather, I set out to do meaningful work. I've always been someone who prioritizes quality over quantity, and this research is really the culmination of three decades of education and professional experience finally coming together," Fettes said.

The paper documented 15 years of professional experience including ecological restoration work and planning practice, distilled into six years of teaching his urban ecology seminar course. The work includes refining the course in an iterative process in response to student needs.

"In that sense, the recognition feels like validation. Not just of the paper itself, but of a way of working and thinking that I've been building toward for a long time. It's meaningful to know that so many pieces are fitting together in a way that resonates beyond this classroom."

He said he pursued his research to better prepare students to work with ecological data and make evidence-based design decisions.

His findings showed six consistent learning outcomes, with environmental literacy and place-based awareness being the most strongly referenced: over two-thirds of students showed clear gains in both areas. "What I find most meaningful is that these weren't just abstract takeaways. Students were writing things like "Water doesn't stop at property lines … I had to think across boundaries," and articulating regenerative design principles rooted in their own fieldwork. That translation from observation to design action is exactly what the profession needs right now."

The paper offers a replicable framework other universities and landscape architecture programs can adapt. Fettes also believes that ecological literacy is required for climate action: we need to redesign communities with a focus on bioregional landscapes, allowing them to adapt to climate change and mitigate root causes.

He also wants people not to reduce landscape research to only data and metrics. "At its core, it's about fostering connection to place. We're trying to understand how people, living systems, and designed environments are connected to one another, and what it means to strengthen those connections rather than sever them."

Fettes offers electives focusing on measuring landscape performance and ecological restoration and recently conducted a Landscape Architecture Foundation-supported case study investigation of the Española Healing Foods Oasis, a one-acre ethnobotanical garden imitated and maintained by the Indigenous non-profit Tewa Women United.