For almost 20 years, Elizabeth has worked as an ecological landscape planner and designer and restoration consultant in the Texas Hill Country. Elizabeth specializes in flood and erosion mitigation, soil restoration, Hill Country culture and ecology, honey bee and monarch habitats, Ashe juniper ecology, trail layout, rainwater collection systems layout, food gardens and forests, outdoor living, and best practices and designs to conserve water and reduce cooling costs.
Elizabeth graduated with an undergraduate focus in biology and ecology then moved to Washington D.C. There she discovered the field of landscape architecture when she went to work at Lee & Liu Associates. Elizabeth then returned to Texas and attended Texas A&M University to obtain a master’s in landscape architecture. While there, her ecology background became the basis of every design. She added additional ecology related courses, as well as courses in cultural geogrpahy and environmental psychology.
After graduation, Elizabeth moved to Houston and worked for SLA Studio Land. There she assisted with large scale planning for resorts and communities in Mexico and Japan. However, she saw more opportunity to integrate ecology into designs in Austin. So after two years, she moved to Austin and started regular work for J. Robert Anderson FASLA on projects such as the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, The Shops of La Cantera, the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge, LCRA Management Headquarters and Fort Hood Military Housing and base wide parks and trail system. There she conducted vegetation surveys, participated in master planning and schematic detail charettes, compiled plant lists, detailed planting designs, met with neighborhood groups and oversaw installations. For the LCRA Headquarters, she added the lower rain garden, worked on the bioswales and pushed for a more comprehensive rainwater collection and an irrigation educational board.
After a number of years, Elizabeth became a certified permaculture designer and founded Droplet Land Design to further develop plans and designs that integrate the processes of ecology with the aesthetics of design. Besides her professional work, Elizabeth works tirelessly to promote the need to approach the everyday landscape, not as something just to look at, but rather as an ecological system. To this end, she has appeared several times on Central Texas Gardener, gives presentations to Austin City Council and recently participated as a Stakeholder for the Green Infrastructure Group that feeds information to CodeNext.
When not busy with her landscape related work, Elizabeth keeps busy researching and writing a book about the Ashe juniper tree (Cedar: Wanted Dead & Alive). She also educates groups across the Hill Country about the Ashe juniper, native plants, native edible, flood mitigation, sustainable landscaping, and wildlife habitats.
Elizabeth spends her free time painting or exploring and photographing the beautiful wildlands and vernacular scenes of the Hill Country with her son and dogs.
Education
City of Austin Watershed Protection Grow Green Landscape Professional Training, 2015
Permaculture Design Certificate from the Texas Institute of Practical Sustainability, Austin, Texas 2006
Masters Degree in Landscape Architecture from Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 1993
Degree in Biology from Randolph-Macon Woman's College, Lynchburg, Virginia 1987
Professional Landscape Work
Private Practice, Droplet Land Design, Austin, Texas (1996-present)
Plateau Land & Wildlife Management, Dripping Springs, landscape designer (2006-2007).
J. Robert Anderson, FASLA, Austin, Texas, landscape researcher, planner, and designer, (subcontract, 1994-present)
The Natural Gardener, Austin, Texas, plant salesperson and researcher, (1997-1998)
Richardson Verdoorn, Austin, Texas, landscape designer and drafter, (subcontract, February-May 1996)
SLA Studio Land, Inc., Houston, Texas, landscape researcher, planner and drafter, (December 1993-October 1994 and summer of 1992)
Pro-Bono & Other Related Work
Green Infrastructure Working Group, group participant, January 2015 to June 2015
The Cedar Lady KDRP radio show host, Dripping Springs, 2010
Spring Enrichment Academy, outdoor education teacher, Dripping Springs, 2009
Fix290 Highway Coalition, core group member, Oakhill 2005-2008
Wild Basin Wilderness Trail Guide, Austin 1994-2006
Publications
Jack Rabbit Journal, 2008. “The Culture of the Ashe Juniper Tree.”
Native Plant Society of Texas News, Summer 2015. “Using Biomimicry to Make our Landscapes Sustainable."
Additional Education
Tom Brown, Jr. Wilderness and Survival School, Pine Barrens, Northwest U.S. (1992)
Loyola University, Rome Center of Liberal Arts, Rome, Italy (1986)
CONTACT INFORMATION: landsteward@gmail.com or 512.657.9675
