This month we welcome Sarah Geurtz, a landscape architect with Earthplan Design Alternatives, and Juliet Richey, a member of the Alliance Board of Directors and an urban planner with Garver. These two ladies have been working together to change city codes to incorporate the use of native plants in urban landscaping. Sarah discusses the role native plants play in the ecosystem and how landscaping is evolving to include more deciduous trees and shrubs, and even perennials. Juliet explains that with our current, exponential regional growth, the time to plan is now. Native plants create a sense of place, and the work we do now for urban planning will serve us well into the future.