In his June update, CLCA East Bay Chapter President Cassidy Lundin recaps a fantastic Beautification Awards night, shares tips for managing peak season staffing, and encourages proactive planning around immigration enforcement—an increasingly important issue for our industry. Read on for highlights and a link to CLCA’s recent webinar on jobsite preparedness.
Thank you to everyone who joined us on June 6th for the CLCA East Bay Chapter Beautification Awards Presentation and Dinner. It was a fantastic evening celebrating some of the best landscape work and projects across the East Bay. The creativity, craftsmanship, and pride our members bring to their work continues to inspire and elevate the industry.
As we head into summer, our Chapter is taking a short break from hosting events, knowing that this is peak season for landscape professionals across the East Bay. Our next event will be in September—a lunchtime training focused on developing and implementing a successful safety program. Stay tuned for details!
At my company, we try to make peak season more manageable by maintaining consistent staffing levels year-round. This helps us avoid the springtime hiring scramble and gives us the capacity to get ahead of seasonal pressures. In the late winter months—after leaf drop and before spring growth—we focus on rejuvenation pruning, weed control, and irrigation system audits and repairs. These efforts pay dividends come spring, but even with strong planning, peak season always feels like a sprint.
Lastly, we can’t ignore the broader climate around immigration enforcement and the growing impact it has on our industry. It’s vital that we support and educate our teams about their rights and how to handle enforcement activities. We anticipate that increased enforcement will add more pressure to an already tight labor market. And as the saying goes, “The best time to plant a tree was yesterday. The second-best time is now.” The same holds true for auditing your I-9s and reviewing your hiring practices.
The CLCA remains a valuable resource on this front—click here to watch a CLCA webinar on Immigration Enforcement & Your Jobsite.
Wishing you all a productive and safe summer season. Let’s keep supporting each other and leading by example.
Cassidy Lundin
President, CLCA East Bay Chapter
