Heidi Hohmann, associate professor of landscape architecture, will be discussing the founding of the Iowa state park system as well as the role Iowa State University faculty has played in the system’s designs in a discussion on Tuesday.

The discussion, “Designing State and National Parks: The Role of ISU Landscape Architects,” will take place at 7 p.m. at the Ames Public Library.

This discussion was prompted after Iowa’s state parks have experienced significant cutbacks in staff and services – as well as it being the 100th anniversary of Iowa’s state park system.

Hohmann wants to use this discussion as a time to look back and reflect on the parks’ original purpose and how that could shape how people think about them today.

“It’s always good to use these anniversaries to see where we were and how far we’ve come,” Hohmann said. “Given that recent news stories report the impact of budget cuts, comparing motivations between then and now may be worth doing. Why were parks a priority in 1917?”

Hohmann will also focus on and recognize the Iowa State University landscape architects who participated in the process of founding the park system.

“The ISU landscape architects inventoried the landscapes prior to selection as state parks, and designed the facilities — roads, trails, pavilions, beaches — that allowed people to see and experience these conserved landscapes,” Hohmann said.

Hohmann will introduce a few people who have played a big part in making Iowa’s state parks what they are today. These people include Arthur Carhart, ISU alum U.S. Forest Service’s first landscape architect; and John R. Fitzsimmons, Iowa State University landscape architecture professor and extension landscape artist.

Hohmann herself has worked as a preservation landscape architect in the National Park Service before pursuing the history of landscape architecture and eventually making her way to ISU and the landscape architecture department.

The discussion is a complement to “The Early Years of Iowa State’s Park System,” the Iowa State University Library Special Collection and University Archives’ new exhibition, and is open to the public.