The Site That Teamwork Built (CLT Exam Comes To Ohio)

"I don’t want to see these guys fail," said Lynch, a CLT-Exterior from Columbus, Ohio, who judged the candidates as they maneuvered the mower and manipulated the needed tools. "This is a difficult test."

Throughout the 10-hour day on August 25, 2000, in Wooster, Ohio, Lynch would repeat the phrase, laced with the subtle accent that was the remnant of 11 years spent in Maryland. The account manager for Environmental Management Inc. was part of that state’s charter certification class.

"This certification program is a good thing that makes a company look better," Lynch promised. Later, he would compare the day’s low humidity to Christmas, a cherished gift in Ohio’s dog days of summer. "It’s great working weather. Who could ask for better?" he said. "Anytime you’re outdoors, you’re running a risk of Mother Nature screwing it up."

But this day she did not screw up. Perhaps that was the crowning glory on a three-year dream for representatives from the Ohio Landscapers Association (OLA), the Ohio Nursery and Landscape Association (ONLA) and the OSU ATI. The three entities forged an unprecedented partnership that brought the certification program to Ohio for the first time.

"I’m thrilled," said Sandy Munley, executive director of the OLA, as the long-awaited day flowed into its final hours. "It was a tremendous task completed by a tremendous group of people."

The Associated Landscape Contractors of America (ALCA) licenses state organizations to give the test. Currently, ALCA has 19 states licensed, but Ohio remains unusual in its endeavor.

"Ohio is the only state currently licensed to give the CLT-Exterior that has two associations co-licensed," said Marcia Higgins, the certification coordinator for ALCA. "This is indicative of two groups that can work together well and cooperate to do a job instead of finding it a field for competition."

MAKING IT HAPPEN. Munley will admit they took their time with the entire program – a longer-than-average period of three years.

"We took a year to visit sites. Last year, we did all the planning and drawing of things," she said. "We visited many, many sites in other states," she said. "We sent representatives all over the U.S. to be observers. We wanted to be sure we were doing it right. Without having watched the test in progress, it would be difficult to build a site unseen. Therefore, we sent the representatives to observe and to determine what we thought would be the best way to build a proper test site."

It was this preparation that made such a successful test day, said Matt Owens, the ALCA representative from Maryland who evaluated the site.

"I feel that by Ohio visiting other states prior to giving their test, they were able to obtain the best from each state," Owens said. "Ohio took this information and incorporated it into their test, and the result was a very professional, smooth transition into administering the CLT test, and they should be commended for doing such a great job."

This careful planning was also mixed with a little divine intervention, some say.

Kent Hammond, the technology coordinator for the OSU ATI, knows how hard he and the others have worked to make the site a reality, but he is convinced things have been meant to happen along the way. "It’s all just falling into place," he said just days before the exam.

For as difficult as it typically is to obtain three rollover water meters, somehow they were available for use on the site, said Hammond, who has been involved in certification at the national and state levels. They also needed trees, which the research center at the OSU ATI was able to provide just a few days before the exam date.

The storage barn for exam equipment was a class project for students in construction at the OSU ATI, one of four ALCA-accredited schools in the Buckeye state. "The ATI made the construction shed a project for their construction class, which was a wonderful way to get the job done," Munley said. "This way, the construction class was actually building a useful item, and the program benefited. So we’ve got a beautiful two-story barn right on the site."

At the time Munley talked about the barn, they were also in the process of securing the equipment, tools and materials for the test. "The vast majority of items will be donated by various green industry suppliers across Ohio, which is really wonderful. We’re also obtaining sponsorships from not only suppliers, but also landscape companies that feel it’s a very important step in professionalizing the industry," she said.

Even during the planning phase, Munley commented, volunteers just worked together with uncanny synergy. "We had arranged for a big volunteer construction day on Friday, June 16, where we brought in volunteers from across the state who worked very diligently and they worked wonderfully together, like they had worked together all the time," recalled Munley. "It was wonderful."

CERTIFICATION SUPERSTAR AND RAISING THE BAR. If they had to name a superstar, it would be Hammond, who became an educator member of the National Landscape Technician Council five years ago. Hammond questioned why Ohio, such a prominent horticulture state, did not offer this national certification.

"Ohio is number five in the country (with regard to horticulture). It was kind of strange that Ohio wasn’t involved," said Hammond, who came to Ohio from Florida 25 years ago. "Florida had it for 50 years."

ONLA had also been looking into the program, said Munley. Because the organization had been a member of ALCA longer than the OLA, they had the first right-of-refusal on the program.

"But because it is such a large undertaking that requires so many volunteers and personnel, they felt it would be advantageous to have OLA come in and partner," said Munley. "For the most part, just about all the test sites across the country are at a university. And ATI was very interested in being the host place of the Ohio test. I think one of the main reasons for that is that Hammond has been very involved in certification at both the national and state levels."

What Ohio did offer at the time was a state certification through the ONLA, a written exam that certifies a person as the Ohio Certified Nursery Technician (OCNT). The CLT-Exterior program is specifically designed for landscape contractors, while the OCNT program has three components designed for garden center employees, wholesale nursery employees and landscape contractor employees, according to information from the OSU ATI’s Department of Continuing Education.

The ONLA has had the program for about 15 years, according to Bill Stalter, executive director of the ONLA. "If that program (OCNT) is like a bachelor’s degree, then this (CLT-Exterior) would be a master’s degree," Stalter said. "I’m not demeaning degrees – it’s just the fact that this is another step up. It has a national scope, and it’s just another way of moving up the professional ladder."

The unusual partnership between the three organizations produced resources that would probably be unavailable to a single source. Each entity contributed $10,000 and they also obtained the 2.3-acre parcel of land at the OSU ATI.

"The partnership with Hammond at the ATI to develop the site and keep the process moving forward has certainly played a role in making the CLT-Exterior test in Ohio a reality," Higgins said.

ALCA’s goal with the program is to have the achievement of an ALCA certification required in every specifier job bid request, Higgins said.

"It is in the best interests of that specifier to do this because certification is a continuing process," Higgins said. "Every three years, the CLT must re-certify by amassing 24 hours of continuing education. Industry standards will remain high because this group will stay current in their knowledge and skills."

For landscape professionals in Ohio, the introduction of the exam, which the groups plan to offer on a yearly basis, means raising the level of awareness in the state.

"I think without question it is going to raise the bar in the state for landscape contractors, and I think it’s going to raise the awareness with customers that it’s going to be important for them to hire contractors that have certified landscape technicians," said George Hohman, owner of Turfscape Inc. in Twinsburg, Ohio, and chairman for the volunteers committee. One of Hohman’s employees took the exam.

Higgins said that for ALCA, it is about trying to raise the consumer’s awareness of certification so that certification will be a benchmark the consumer seeks out when purchasing landscaping services.

"If the purchaser of services demands/requires certification to get the business, more people will see the need to get involved. We emphasize to those achieving any of the designations (Certified Landscape Professional, CLT-Interior and CLT Exterior) that they should use certification as a marketing tool," she said. "We provide each person with a personalized press release they can distribute to their local media to get the word out. They are given the logos to add to their business card, letterhead, etc. Passing the exam puts them a notch above the competition."