Julia Badenhope, assistant professor and extension specialist in landscape architecture, was presented with Iowa State Extension’s New Professional Award in ceremonies held Nov. 11 at ISU.

“The purpose of the award is to recognize new extension professionals who have made significant contributions to the achievement of the goals of extension,” Mark Jost of the ISU extension office, said.

Badenhope said she was selected for the award because of a program she developed in collaboration with county agents and citizen leaders.

In partnership with a private non-profit group “Trees Forever,” and with the assistance of the Department of Transportation, she applied for program funding from the Federal Highways Administration.

“[The program] is targeted to a real need, it puts all the players into the process of developing and implementing a program, and it leverages external funding to complement our state level and local funding in delivering the program,” Badenhope said.

“Those are all elements that are key for extension as we enter this new era of government downsizing,” she said.

“[Badenhope’s] been very effective as a liaison between the university and the profession in a position that could be highly controversial,” Tim Borich, interim associate director for the Institute of Design Research and Outreach, said.

The extension landscape department has a rich history, which includes beautifying many farm steads and designing most of the state parks, but the advancement of the profession of landscape architecture put the department into a quandary, Borich said.

He said the quandary involves deciding what services to provide so they do not compete with the landscape profession in Iowa, many of whom are ISU graduates.

“What I think Julia has done extremely effectively in her extension work is work through the profession,” Borich said.

At the same time, she has been able to carry out very effective work with communities on such issues as waterfront improvements, community corridors and visualization, travel corridors in rural communities, parks and recreation areas, he said.

“I tend to be a person, a touchstone, between the people of Iowa and the resources in the private sector and in the academic world. I also work on a state level in terms of policy development,” Badenhope said.

“Because I’m a sounding board for so many groups, I’m in a good position to work with the agencies and help them understand how their programs affect people, how they could be more effective in delivering their programs,” she said.

Badenhope is a member of the Iowa Urban and Community Forestry Council, which is a state-level coordinating committee. She is a former member of the Playground Safety Committee which is made up of representatives from the colleges of Iowa, insurance agents and landscape architects.

Badenhope’s work is increasingly focused on environmental quality issues, because even though research is available on integrating ecosystem design into everything from school campuses to stream corridor restoration, very little of that work is available to a public audience, she said.

“I’ve been integrating that work into continuing education programs for landscape architects, and into programming for parks and recreation boards, and in my teaching role in the college,” she said.

“I think it’s really essential to get a working knowledge of ecology and an appreciation for our landscape setting into our programming for local leaders. It’s a group that’s very interested,” Badenhope said.

“The whole world doesn’t make decisions based on economics and more pragmatic concerns,” she said.

She has discovered that people do things because they believe in an idea, or think a cause is worthy, or think that a place is beautiful.

“I think those are very legitimate reasons to do something and probably the best reasons,” Badenhope said.

“Just relying on laws and regulations is a really bad idea. I think we need to work harder to tap people’s motivations and to help people get the knowledge to make good decisions. And they will,” she said.

Badenhope said she would like to recognize the efforts in her behalf of two county agents, Craig Hertel, from Greene County, and Ron Sansom, from Page County, along with Borich, who has been a mentor to her at ISU.