37 years is a long, long time. This should prove to be a very interesting battle.
Down at the bottom of the article it mentions "Surveyor Carl Edwards". A check of the Idaho Board website shows that Carl Edwards was a dual registrant, which is all too frequently a red flag, IMHO.
I have only worked directly with 1 PELS in Idaho. Gary Lee is one of the best Surveyors and Engineers I've had the privilege to work with. The other I know is Dave Curtis, a past Executive Director of our Board. I learned a lot from Gary and if it weren't for Dave I probably wouldn't have an Idaho license. It's too bad your experiences haven't been so good, but your brush seems a bit broad...
Yup, dat's right! We's a bunch o' badasses!
> Yup, dat's right! We's a bunch o' badasses!
I don't mean to disparage any individuals. Much of my experience with dual registrants is in Oregon, where a lot of PE's were grandfathered, without examination, as LS's in the 1970's.
The problem was not with the law. The problem with any law is that select individuals are prone to tackle projects for which they have a license to perform but for which they are inadequately prepared. It happens every day with surveyors. It comes down to a matter of ethics.
Now, pick an area in which you are proficient. Then, imagine that today you discover that your license to perform such work has been stripped from you through absolutely no fault on your part. What do you do? Do you fill out the paper work to get it re-instated under some different title, do you stop doing such work forever or do you spend six months to a year and a pile of time and money to sit through a bunch of BS testing to prove what you have been proving routinely for years? Oh, and during that six month to a year period, don't you even think of doing such work.
Put that big ol' shoe on your own foot.
Who do you think was in charge of surveying in a State prior to the creation of the ability to be licensed specifically as a "Land Surveyor"? You know, since the creation of any kind of professional licensing up to some point in the 20th Century when different States at different times decided that "land surveying" might have developed sufficiently as to be treated as a unique body of knowledge separate from the general case of be Engineering-related?
I am a licensed engineer but I do not pretend to be able to design internal combustion engines, skyscrapers, distillation towers, complex electronic devices or thousands of other things that various licensed engineers do. I have a license that says I could possibly do those things. But, I only do what I know I am competent in doing.
I am a licensed land surveyor but I do not pretend to be able to lay out complex highway overpass/underpass/onramp/offramp/multilane construction projects or guide skyscraper construction or survey in mines or in any other State than the one for which I possess a great amount of personal knowledge. I do what I know I am competent in doing.
How can an engineer know anything about surveying 😉
Dave Curtis is NOT a licensed surveyor.
Norman, as usual you are spot on. In general, while there are a few dual license holders that are competent surveyors, far too many should probably have stuck to engineering only.
Not sure how I got it stuck in my head he was a dual licensee. He is a quality guy but it appears I got that one wrong... I did however work for Gary for 5 years. He did great work in both professions...
The pie chart is from BPELSG. I was surprised to learn that most people authorized to practice land surveying in California are civil engineers.
Shamelessly ripped off of The California Surveyor Magazine issue #177
