According to the National Association of Landscape Professionals (NALP), after working with the Department of Homeland Security for weeks to ensure that landscape services are included in the Federal Guidance as an essential service, the revised Guidance on the Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce: Ensuring Community and National Resilience in COVID-19 Response Version 2.0 includes the landscape services industry in the Public Works and Infrastructure Support Services section of DHS’s “Memorandum on Identification of Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers During COVID-19.” Landscape services are included as follows:
Workers such as plumbers, electricians, exterminators, builders, contractors, HVAC Technicians, landscapers, and other service providers who provide services that are necessary to maintaining the safety, sanitation, and essential operation of residences, businesses and buildings such as hospitals, senior living facilities, any temporary construction required to support COVID-19 response.
According to NALP, this is a huge win for the landscape services industry, but note that state and local authorities still have jurisdiction in their areas; also DHS says that “the list is advisory in nature. It is not, nor should it be considered, a federal directive or standard.” NALP will continue to work with all 50 states to ensure that landscaping services are considered essential.
For information about each State’s “lockdown” or “shelter in place” orders, click here. If there is an order in place, NALP has provided provisions of that order that are the most pertinent to the landscape industry.