Reader's Forum

Magazine needs balance
I just filled out the August State of the Industry survey request. With all due respect, the questions again skew to be conservatively loaded. Isn’t the magazine interested in actually determining the attitude of rank-and-file members, rather than reinforcing a conservative agenda?

For example, the survey lists an option to check off concern regarding environmental regulations and restrictions but does not show an option for chemical dangers, phosphorus runoff or water quality. If one extreme is listed as an option to note concern (regulation). Shouldn’t the alternative also be listed (environmental degradation)? In addition, an option is noted as to concern about “the present administration.” How about, alternatively, support for it?

In the end, the survey appears to be a solicitation to measure sales and cost data and determine equipment needs. It clearly skews right and does not allow for a true measure of the thinking within the landscape community. As an active member of the Lawn & Landscape community, I would like to see more options listed in your surveys to allow a fuller expression of political and environmental orientation. Thank you!

Alan Burke
Landscape architect
Classic Nursery & Landscape Company
Redmond, Wash.

Better all the time
I have been reading Lawn & Landscape magazine for years. I have given up on the others. Yours gets better; theirs get worse. I should acknowledge, more frequently, your contribution to our industry. I have been at it for 42 years and have progressed from kid next door, to summer job, to I’m an adult but I have no clue, to IRS problems because I wasn’t priced right, to business person, to successful business person. I have gone through all the stages and hope that, somehow, I can speed up the process for some of my peers. I tell people to read everything they can about business starting with the trade magazines. You guys make me look good.

Thanks for your contribution.

Roger Sturgis
Owner/president
Roger B. Sturgis & Associates
Framingham, Mass.