|
IN THIS ISSUE...
- A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
- 2023 Trig-Star
- WHERE IN CA IS THIS?
- Deadline Approaches for GPS on Benchmarks for the Transformation Tool Program
- GNSS Courses Now Being Offered!
- CLSA MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
- Qfactor's New Feature, Tasklist, Modernizes Operations for Land Surveyors
- 2023 WOMEN SURVEYORS SUMMIT
- Help Shape the Future of Land Surveying by Educating Our Future Surveyors
- IN THE NEWS
| |
|
Dear CLSA Members,
Another exciting month has passed, with more to come. This year is flying by, so it's important for us to take a moment and reflect on our accomplishments and goals. In April, we successfully held our virtual Board Meeting. As we gain more experience with these online tools, communication and the overall experience continue to improve. We have come a long way since the days of conference calls. The meeting went well, and we made significant progress on defining the future direction of Cal Surveyor Magazine.
During the past month, I had the privilege of attending a few of our Committees. This is where the real work gets done, so I want to express my gratitude to all the Board Members, Corporate Members, and Associate Members who generously donate their valuable time to make CLSA a strong and vibrant association. For those members who may feel intimidated by others on the committees, I encourage you to take the leap and learn from those with experience. Remember that those experienced members also once took the initiative to join a committee with the goal and vision of making a difference. This is how our association progresses and succeeds. Participation in a volunteer organization is our lifeblood, and diverse thoughts and ideas that challenge the status quo are how we continue to move forward. I understand that time is our most precious commodity, so please don't hesitate to jump in and contribute to making CLSA an association we can all be proud to be a part of.
| |
|
To inspire you further, here is a video from Steve Jobs regarding the secrets of life, and having the courage to jump in and make your mark:
Kevin Hills, PLS
President, CLSA
| |  |
|
|
The 2023 SMA, PLS Act and Roster Books are now shipping!
CLICK HERE
| ARTICLE & PHOTO SUBMISSIONS FOR CALIFORNIA SURVEYOR MAGAZINE | Do you have a photo from your field work that would make a great magazine cover? Do you have an idea for an article or have you written an article that you'd like us to consider including in the next issue? Please send your submissions and ideas to CLSA Headquarters, clsa@californiasurveyors.org. |
NSPS - STOLEN EQUIPMENT REGISTRY
Reminder - NSPS provides a registry of stolen equipment.
| Offers a $.07 per page discount and will automatically donate $.10 per page to CLSA when members download courthouse documents through this website. These instruments include Deeds, Easements, Rights-of-Way, Releases, Liens, etc. | The Education Foundation was established in 1993 and is committed to supporting land surveying students and programs. Last year over $40,000 in scholarship aid was provided to land surveying students. Your monetary and surveying equipment donations are appreciated! CLICK HERE to learn more about the Education Foundation. | |
CLSA MEMBERSHIP RENEWAL
If you have not already renewed your CLSA membership, please do so now. And be sure to invite others to join our great organization. Your membership supports CLSA’s efforts to protect, enhance and grow the land surveying profession. Members receive free monthly webinars, discounts to the annual conference and from our affinity partner organizations, as well as membership in the National Society of Professional Surveyors (NSPS) for representation and advocacy at the national level.
RENEW HERE
| |
Qfactor's New Feature, Tasklist, Modernizes Operations for Land Surveyors
READ MORE
| |
Future Surveyors Foundation
2023 WOMEN SURVEYORS SUMMIT
Oct 19-22, 2023
Stillwater, MN
| |
4th Women Land Surveyors Summit. The Women Surveyors Summit, hosted by Future Surveyors Foundation is held to support and promote diversity in the land surveying profession. There are 8-10 PDH’s available.
For sponsorship opportunities, please contact info@futuresurveyors.org.
LEARN MORE
| |
BPELSG Spring 2023 Board Bulletin
The Spring 2023 bulletin for the Board for Professional Engineers, Land Surveyors, and Geologists is now available on the Board's website.
In This Issue:
- Executive Officer’s Message
- Exam Results
- Outreach Events
- In Memoriam
- Get to Know Our Licensees
- Enforcement Actions
- Board Calendar
READ MORE
| |
GNSS Courses Now Being Offered!
Click HERE or on image below for more info.
| | |
|
2023 Trig-Star
The 2023 Trig-Star season had a late start this year and as schools slowly progressed post-COVID, we were pleased to have eleven high schools and over 260 students fully participate in the program. It was a very competitive year and the California Trig-Star competitors did incredibly well. As you know, the State Competition is based on comparing the student winners of each local competition (high school). The student with the highest score in the fastest time among the local Trig-Star winners becomes the State winner.
READ MORE from Trig*Star Coordinator, Sherry Toutges
| |
The April “Where in CA is This?” had several winners, some of whom wish to remain anonymous. In addition to the masked mappers, Larry Walsh, PE, PLS, President of Walsh Engineering and Surveying, Inc. of El Cajon; Al Brisendine, Jr., LSIT, of Caltrans District 11, and Bill Tuck, PLS, of the City of Oceanside were all correct Day 1 respondents with local knowledge and Google Earth confirmations coming into play.
The photo was the westerly slope of Mt. San Jacinto with a pink glow from the setting sun highlighting the peak’s heavy 2023 snowcap with the shoulders and foreground already in shadow. The photo was taken just south of the Warren and Stetson roads intersection looking across the Hemet Airport. If you have a distinctive photo of California you would like to share, please send it to Rob with details of the location.
| |
Try to identify the location of this month’s photo. Please tell me how you identified the location.
Submit answers to: Rob McMillan.
| |
Deadline Approaches for GPS on Benchmarks for the Transformation Tool Program
By Steven J. Martin, LS 7264
The end of September deadline for GPS on Benchmarks (GPSonBMs) submissions to be included to help define the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88) to North American Pacific Geopotential Datum of 2022 (NAPGD2022) transformation is rapidly approaching.
California has made some progress on completing the goal of 1 benchmark with 2 GPS observations on it every 10 kilometers, or 10km hexagons as they are called. CLSA had a webinar in January of 2021 (link on the CLSA Members website) and the 10km hexagon status then was at 15% complete. We have had some Caltrans Districts, Counties, Cities, and many volunteers step up and currently we are at 45% completion of 10km hexagons. With about 4 months let to go, there is still so much to do.
| |
Some States such as Iowa, and several California Counties are working on a big, final push to complete the outstanding 10km hexagons in their area of interest. With a big effort from all those in California who have volunteered so far, we can reach 50% completion of 10km hexagons.
I hope we can get more than 50% completion. What is needed for that to happen is for more Surveyors and Surveying Organizations to step up and observe many of these benchmarks that just need one more observation to complete a 10km hexagon during the next 4 months.
| The National Geodetic Survey (NGS) produced a GIS map of where the gap areas are so that concerned surveyors can focus their effort where it is needed most. The plot below was made using GPSonBMs submissions as of April 24th. |  | As you can see, Nevada with its wide open spaces has a long way to go. Nevada currently sits at 5% completion for 10km hexagons. Clark County recently started contributing and I believe that they will get Clark County close to completion, however the rest of the State needs a lot more attention. There are some large gaps in California too, particularly along the I-80 corridor from the Bay Area to Reno, NV. NGS Regional Geodetic Advisor Dana Caccamise put out a call for Surveyors to collect GPSonBMs data on the way to the Conference in Reno, but that did not seem to fit into everyone’s travel plans. I may make a trip this summer to get a couple along there, but with over 1200 Priority A and Priority B 10km hexagons remaining, the couple I can get will barely make a dent. |  | |
Screen grab of the GPSonBMS web map showing Northern California and a portion of Nevada
LEGEND: Yellow = Priority A, Blue = Priority B, Green = completed hexagon. White = completed benchmark, red dot in round symbol = one more observation required.¬
| There are many States in worse shape than California. It is my hope that California can break into the top 3 in the number of 10km hexagons completed. At this point, we will likely not catch up to Minnesota and Wisconsin. South Carolina and Illinois are ahead of us and Florida is coming on strong. Some of these States are smaller than California and still have completed more hexagons. | If you would like to know more about the GPSonBMs program, visit the NGS website at: GPS on Bench Marks (noaa.gov), view the recorded webinar on the CLSA Members site, other webinars on the NGS web site under Science & Education – Webinar Series, or feel free to reach out to be at stevejmart@aol.com. | |
|
California Spatial Reference Center Coordinating Council Meeting April 2023
By Steven J. Martin, LS 7264
| |
I attended the Spring CSRC Coordinating Council meeting in La Jolla on April 27th and wanted to share some of experience. The bi-annual Coordinating Council meetings usually have an informative and educational program and this one did not disappoint.
One highlight was a plaque unveiling dedicated to Dr. Yehuda Bock, Director and Founder of the California Spatial Reference Center (CSRC). The included photos of the plaque unveiling are courtesy of UCSD. The event, 3 years in the making, was supposed to be a surprise, but Dr. Bock may have been given a hint about it beforehand. The plaque is located in front of the historic Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) Director’s House building and next to a newly installed benchmark.
The unveiling occurred after an entertaining presentation by NGS Geodetic Advisor Dana Caccamise on “Modernization and Hardening of the NAVD88 and Tidal Datum Infrastructure at Scripps."
In the afternoon, there were several interesting presentations by other scientists at Scripps related to seafloor and ocean geodesy. Dr. Bock recently submitted a grant proposal on behalf of CSRC for some NGS funding. Many of the items in the Notice of Federal Funding Opportunity were in line with research already in progress at SIO.
- Dr. Mark Merrifield gave a presentation on “Sea Level Rise Along the California Coast."
- Dr. Matthew Mazloff gave a presentation on “Diagnosing the Ocean Topography to Improve the Terrestrial Reference Frame."
- Dr. Mark Zumberge gave a presentation on “GNSS-Acoustic for Seafloor Geodesy."
A few of the regular presentations were:
- Dr. Bock’s gave the “Director’s Report: CSRC/CRTN Update."
- Scott Martin and Kevin Maxwell also gave a “Caltrans and State Geodetic Coordinator Update."
- Bill Funderburk gave a “Network of the Americas (NOTA), Earthscope Update."
Of course, part of the experience is networking with other surveyors throughout the State.
CSRC expects to have the recording of the meeting up on its YouTube Channel. Also look for California Spatial Reference Center on LinkedIn and Twitter.
|  | |
|
PARADIGM GEOSPATIAL (PG) SCANS LAS VEGAS FORMULA 1 RACE ROUTE
PG President James Nicolau, IV, PLS, posted on his LinkedIn page: “In advance of the upcoming Formula 1 in Las Vegas and as a part of our ongoing scanning & reality-capture research, our team has compiled quite the unique dataset. The fly through below is the result of 432 scans collected with both Trimble Geospatial's X7 & X12 scanners, which resulted in over 13.6 billion data points.” Let James know if you find any “Easter Eggs” in the fly-through, available on the PG website.
| |
|
CONGRATULATIONS TIFFANY PADILLA, PLS - PROMOTED TO PROJECT MANAGER
Tiffany Padilla, PLS was promoted to Project Manager at KDM Meridian. Tiffany has been with KDM Meridian since 2016 as a Land Surveying Technician. She was a Land Surveying Technician for Psomas from 2012 to 2016. Tiffany attended Santiago Canyon College, where she was active in the SCC Student CLSA Chapter. KDM Meridian owner Richard Maher commented “We could not be prouder of this young lady and are so excited to be a part of her trajectory. She is an inspiration and mentor to many of our technical staff.”
| |
|
CONGRATULATIONS TIFFANY PADILLA, PLS - PROMOTED TO PROJECT MANAGER
New Senior Associates:
Adam Mahoney, PE, PLS; Gerry Hammond, PLS; and Rod Stewart II, PLS.
| |
|
New Associates: Dean Jurado, PLS and Chuy Martinez.
KIER + WRIGHT commented “Congratulations to our newly promoted senior leadership. Offering their individual talents and their shared team commitment, they will extend K+W’s success into the future. It's our honor to recognize this team of leaders and the secret sauce they bring to Kier + Wright!”
| |
|
‘IT’S A NOBLE PROFESSION’: LAND SURVEYORS ARE AGING AND RETIRING IN MICHIGAN
Over the past seven years, Michigan experienced a 12-percent decline in the number of active land surveyors, raising questions about the future of a profession that a wide variety of other industries depend on to keep projects moving.
However, the widespread reliance on land surveyors is confronting the reality that the number of surveying professionals in Michigan is steadily declining. The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs processed 30 percent fewer land surveyor applications and 40 percent fewer license renewals from 2015 to 2022, according to data shared through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Michigan’s declining land surveyor employment comes as national figures stagnate. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts nationwide land surveyor employment to rise by only 1 percent from 2021 and 2031. Meanwhile, experts say it’s difficult to overstate the importance of land surveying professionals who provide critical services to the economy.
“There are not enough people available to do the work,” said Ed Bailey, director of operations and business development for the Marine Center at Traverse City-based Northwestern Michigan College, which offers training programs for the marine, surveying and remote sensing industries. “Society would cease to exist without the existence of surveyors. Nothing you see around you would be there without the collection and mapping of data.”
Gary Hahn, a Ferris State University graduate who has more than four decades of land surveying experience at Wightman, an architecture, civil engineering and surveying firm with eight locations in northern Indiana and Michigan, said he thinks many young students feel dissuaded to enter land surveying because of the profession’s education requirements.
To combat the growing shortage, universities, the Michigan Society of Professional Surveyors and private companies seek to bolster awareness about the profession. “Our colleagues are finding that we need to do outreach. By the time we meet students, sometimes they already have an idea of what school they will attend, what scholarships they want, without knowing about spatial engineering,” Bailey said.
Michigan Tech and the Michigan Society of Professional Surveyors run the Teaching with Spatial Technology (TwiST) program, a free, week-long workshop hosted in Houghton to teach sixth to 12th-grade educators about land surveying technology.
Representatives from universities and private surveying companies are also engaging in outreach programs to meet middle and high school students at career fairs and middle and high school career days. “That’s been pretty rewarding,” Hahn said. “We always have one or two kids hanging around after and asking questions. Hopefully, we’ll see some good results from those efforts.”
“It’s rare that somebody in high school says, ‘Hey, I want to be a surveyor.’ A lot of people don’t know about the profession,” Hahn said. “But, it’s a noble profession. It matters.”
READ MORE
| |
|
IOWA SUPREME COURT DENIES APPEAL IN PIPELINE TRESPASSING CASE
The Iowa Supreme Court has rejected the appeal of a carbon dioxide pipeline surveyor who was charged last year with trespassing in northwest Iowa and wanted the case dismissed before trial, according to court records. A district court judge denied Larsen’s request to dismiss the case in January, and a trial is now set for June 29, court records show. Larsen sought a review from the Supreme Court of that judge’s denial, but the high court declined to do so in an order last week.
Attorney Alan Ostergren argued that Iowa law explicitly protects land surveyors for pipelines from being charged with trespassing. The law gives pipeline companies access to private land after they hold informational meetings about the projects and provide 10 days’ written notice via certified mail.
“The entry for land surveys … shall not be deemed a trespass and may be aided by (court) injunction,” the Iowa law says.
“If you if you think of this as a sword and a shield in the same sentence, the shield is: The entry is not deemed a trespass,” Ostergren said during a district court hearing in December. “The sword is: The pipeline company gets the ability to go to court and get legal process to aid its entry.”
Dickinson County Attorney Steven Goodlow, who is prosecuting the case, has said landowners and a tenant refused to accept certified letters from the company and that Summit should have sought an injunction to force the survey, potentially with the assistance of law enforcement.
READ MORE
| |
SAD NEWS FROM CONNECTICUT – REMINDER TO MAINTAIN AWARENESS AT ALL TIMES
A land surveyor was killed Wednesday after he was struck by a car in a parking lot in Fairfield.
Police responded to a parking lot at 2150 Post Road at about 9:18 a.m. after receiving a 911 call about a pedestrian being struck, according to the Fairfield Police Department.
Officers who responded determined that the victim, 59-year-old Stephen Brynn from Colchester, was a land surveyor assigned to do work in the area and was struck in the driveway of a business. He was taken in an ambulance to St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
The driver involved, a 19-year-old woman, remained at the scene and has been cooperating with police, according to police.
READ MORE
| |
WOULD RECOGNIZING EMPLOYEE OR BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENTS HELP YOUR FIRM?
Articles recognizing employee licensure, certification or promotion, interesting projects, and business expansion or relocation can be published in the CLSA eNews. These articles help publicize your firm, recognize your employees, share your company culture, and highlight the opportunities you offer.
| |
Thank You CLSA Sustaining Members | | | | |
