New Hampshire · Landscaping licensing · official-source guide
The New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure and Certification licenses no landscaping contractor. The state licenses only the design profession, through its Board of Landscape Architects, and RSA 310-A:160 exempts landscape design and installation where no stamp is required. What binds a landscaper instead is pesticide applicator licensing, shoreland and wetland permits, and local excavation permits.
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New Hampshire issues no state license for a landscaping contractor. There is no state registration for planting, lawn installation, hardscaping, grading or retaining wall work. The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification holds the state occupational boards, and the one closest to this trade is the Board of Landscape Architects. That board licenses a design profession, not an installation trade. RSA 310-A:145 says no person shall practice landscape architecture in this state except as permitted in RSA 310-A:160, and RSA 310-A:160 is the section that keeps most landscaping companies outside the license. It provides that nothing restricts landscape design for farms, residences, or institutional or commercial sites where neither the client nor the reviewing government entity requires a licensed landscape architect's stamp. It also provides that nothing restricts builders or their superintendents from supervising the installation of landscape projects, and nothing restricts arborists, nurserymen, soil scientists and irrigation designers from operating in the state. A New Hampshire landscaping company can therefore design, sell and build a residential planting plan, a patio, a walkway or a wall with no state occupational license at all. What it cannot do is call itself a landscape architect. Three other state programs do attach to specific landscaping services, and these are the ones that cost a company work when they are missed. Pesticide and herbicide application is licensed under RSA 430. Work near lakes, rivers and wetlands is permitted under RSA 483-B and RSA 482-A. Irrigation tie-ins to a public water main run through the cross connection control program of the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services.
RSA 310-A:141 defines landscape architectural practice as professional services in land development where the dominant purpose is to preserve, enhance or determine appropriate land uses, natural features, planting, aesthetic values and the setting for structures, together with natural drainage and land problems such as erosion and blight, to the extent those services protect public health, safety and welfare. The definition reaches graphic and written material for land development, review of master and land development plans, feasibility studies, site selection, construction documents, specifications, construction supervision, and advice on land preservation, restoration and management. It also reaches consultation, research, stewardship, analysis, investigation, reconnaissance and construction overview. The statute then carves out work that belongs to other licensed professions. Designing structures with separate purposes, streets or highways, utilities, sewer systems and water or sewage treatment facilities is excluded. Land surveys and final plats for official approval or recording are excluded. Official soil mapping is excluded. Testing and reporting on soil and bedrock is excluded. Wetland delineation is excluded, and so is determining soil or groundwater conditions tied to hazardous waste contamination. The same chapter defines a landscape architect as a person qualified by education, experience or both to practice landscape architecture, shown by holding the license, and defines the board as the board of landscape architects. Read against RSA 310-A:160, the practical line for a contractor is the stamp. If a client or a planning board demands a stamped plan, the work has to pass through a licensee. If nobody demands a stamp, the design can be yours.
RSA 310-A:160 lists the exemptions, and it is written in terms a contractor can use. Preparing detailed and shop drawings for your own work is not restricted. Landscape design for farms, residences, or institutional or commercial sites is not restricted where no stamp is required by the client or by the reviewing government entity. Carrying out installation as a builder, or supervising it as a foreman or superintendent, is not restricted. Green industry work by arborists, nurserymen, soil scientists and irrigation designers is not restricted. Licensed architects, professional engineers, land surveyors and certain wetland, natural and soil scientists may do their own work, including wetland mitigation plans. Federal employees practicing for the federal government in the state are covered too. Every one of those exemptions carries the same condition: the exempt person may not use the title landscape architect without a license. There is a second trap in RSA 310-A:148. Carrying out work designed by a landscape architect as a contractor, or supervising that work as a foreman or superintendent, is expressly not counted as experience in landscape architecture. Years of installing stamped plans therefore build no credit toward the license. RSA 310-A:152 closes the loop on the stamp itself. Every paper or document involving landscape architecture practice must be dated when issued or filed for public record and authenticated with the signature and seal of the licensee who prepared it or who had responsibility for it and approved it. A seal may not be applied to work the licensee did not prepare personally or supervise directly.
RSA 310-A:146 sets two routes. The first is an accredited four year degree in landscape architecture, or its equivalent, plus three years of professional experience under the direct supervision of a licensed landscape architect. The second is a four year degree in landscape architecture that is not accredited, or a four year degree in a related field, plus five years of experience, of which three years must be under the direct supervision of a licensed landscape architect. Both routes then require passing the written examinations required by RSA 310-A:151. The same section gives the board a character screen. It may refuse an applicant who is not of good professional character, and the listed grounds include a felony conviction, misstatements on the application, violating the standards of conduct, and unlicensed practice in another jurisdiction. RSA 310-A:147 allows teaching credits to count, and RSA 310-A:148 removes contractor and superintendent time from the experience pool, which matters if you came up through installation rather than a design office. For an owner of a landscaping company this is the realistic read. If you did not take a landscape architecture degree, the license is a multi year project that runs through someone else's design practice, not something you add to the business this season. The faster route to the same revenue is to keep the design work inside the exemptions in RSA 310-A:160 and to subcontract a licensee when a planning board or a commercial client insists on a stamped plan.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1gc.nh.gov 2gc.nh.gov 3gc.nh.gov 4gc.nh.gov 5
RSA 310-A:151 is short. The scope of the technical and professional examination and the methods of procedure are prescribed by the board. The detail sits in the board's administrative rules. Under Lsa 302.01(e) an applicant must take the Landscape Architect Registration Exam, written as LARE and prepared by the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards, and achieve a passing score. Lsa 303.01 splits the exam into four sections. Sections 1 and 2 are multiple choice. Sections 3 and 4 are graphic. All sections must be passed. RSA 310-A:146 places the examination after the preliminary education and experience requirements are met, so the exam is the last gate rather than the first. Nothing in the statute or the rules creates a separate state written law exam, and nothing creates a business or law module of the kind some states bolt on to a trade license. For a contractor reading this to decide whether to chase the credential, the point is that the exam is a national one. The content is not New Hampshire specific, which is why the board can accept a Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards certificate from an out of state licensee instead of running the person through the exam again. That is handled under the reciprocity rules rather than the examination rules. Exam scheduling and the exam vendor's own charges sit outside the state fee schedule published by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification, so budget for them separately from the state application fee.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1gencourt.state.nh.us 2gc.nh.gov 3oplc.nh.gov 4
The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification publishes the current fee schedule for the Board of Landscape Architects, and the amounts are flat. The landscape architect application fee is $160.00. The certificate fee is $20.00. A license verification fee is $10.00. Reciprocity costs the same as a first license. The reciprocity fee for an applicant with a Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards record is $160.00, and the direct to state reciprocity fee is also $160.00. The renewal fee is $160.00. The reinstatement fee is $160.00. There is no separate seal fee in the published schedule, and no bond is listed anywhere in the schedule, because this is a professional license rather than a contractor registration. Two cost notes matter for planning. First, the examination itself is run by an outside council, so its charge is not in the state schedule. Second, the board's older administrative rules at Lsa 301.03 carry a different and higher set of amounts than the schedule the office now publishes, so a contractor pricing the credential should work from the office's published fee page and confirm the figure with the office before writing a check. For the landscaping side of the business the more relevant state money is the pesticide applicator fee schedule, which is set by statute rather than by this board, and the local excavation permit fees charged by individual cities.
Sourcesoplc.nh.gov 1gencourt.state.nh.us 2gc.nh.gov 3rochesternh.gov 4
Renewal is biennial, and the continuing education figure comes straight from the statute rather than from a rule that could change quietly. RSA 310-A:150 requires 30 hours of continuing education in each biennial renewal period. The board decides which courses and activities count, choosing those that advance professional competence, and credit is awarded at one credit for each contact hour of course instruction or professional development activity actually attended. The board's rules add the mechanics. Under Lsa 401.01 a license is renewed by written application before the expiration date together with the prescribed renewal fee. Lsa 401.02(c) adds a late fee of 20 percent per month for a late renewal. Lsa 401.04(e) makes failure to file a renewal application within 12 months of expiration a ground to deny renewal, and Lsa 401.05 pushes a license that has lapsed for 12 months or more into reinstatement rather than renewal. The renewal fee published by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification is $160.00, and the reinstatement fee is also $160.00. The rules also keep a paper trail on the licensee. Attendance verification records must be retained for at least 4 years, and not less than 5 percent of licensees are randomly selected each year for audit. A licensee moving from inactive to active status owes 15 additional continuing education hour units, for a total of 45. No more than 6 continuing education hours may be claimed for service on a state or national board of licensure, and a maximum of 15 professional development hours may be carried forward.
New Hampshire has two paths in for someone already licensed elsewhere, and both cost the same as a first license. Under Lsa 304.01 an applicant licensed in another state must show that the other state's requirements are substantially equivalent to or higher than those of this state. An applicant who holds a certificate from the Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards must have that certificate sent directly to the board office rather than supplied by the applicant. The fee page published by the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification lists a reciprocity fee of $160.00 for an applicant with a council record and a direct to state reciprocity fee of $160.00 for an applicant without one, so the council certificate buys speed rather than a discount. The statutory requirements still sit behind the rule. RSA 310-A:146 sets the education and experience floor, and the board applies the substantial equivalence test against it, which is why a license earned under an older or lighter standard can still be questioned. Note also the practical limit of reciprocity for a landscaping business. The license being recognized is a design license. It does not carry a contractor privilege, because New Hampshire does not issue one. A company crossing the state line to install work needs no state trade license here, but it does need its own pesticide applicator licensing if it sprays, its own local right of way permits, and New Hampshire workers compensation coverage for employees working in the state.
Sourcesgencourt.state.nh.us 1oplc.nh.gov 2gc.nh.gov 3gc.nh.gov 4
This is the state license most New Hampshire landscaping companies actually need. The Division of Pesticide Control at the New Hampshire Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food runs it. The division's own licensing page states that a commercial applicator license is required when applying pesticides on another's property, naming pest insect control, invasive plant control and golf course use as examples. A private applicator license covers applications to produce an agricultural commodity for sale. A dealer license covers selling or distributing restricted use pesticides in the state. RSA 430:33 sets the money and the structure. No person shall engage in the commercial application of pesticides without a valid certificate of registration from the division. Private applicators need a certificate only to apply restricted pesticides. Anyone else applying pesticides, other than a commercial applicator, needs a written permit from the division. Commercial registration is $60 per year. Private applicator registration is $20 per year. A permit is $20 per year. No fee applies to nonprofit or governmental entities. Applicants must show competency through an examination or another board approved method and must show proof of financial responsibility, and holders must keep operational records and submit the prior year's records to renew. RSA 430:34 adds a $15 examination fee for each category or commodity group in which an applicator is examined, and requires that one member of each equipment crew be registered. Applications must be made personally or under the direct supervision of someone who has passed the examination. The division's page states that each licensed individual attends educational seminars every five years for recertification.
Sourcesagriculture.nh.gov 1gc.nh.gov 2gc.nh.gov 3agriculture.nh.gov 4
New Hampshire's Shoreland Water Quality Protection Act turns a routine lawn treatment into a licensed act. RSA 483-B:9 sets minimum standards inside the protected shoreland. Fertilizer may not be applied within 25 feet of the reference line of public water. Beyond that, slow or controlled release fertilizer may be used under department rules. Inside the 50 foot waterfront buffer, chemicals including pesticides and herbicides may be applied only by licensed horticultural professionals or under a special permit. That single clause is why a New Hampshire landscaper working lakefront accounts needs the applicator license even for work a crew would handle unlicensed two streets inland. The same section limits what a crew may cut. In the first 50 feet, rocks, stumps and their roots stay in place unless removal is approved. Natural ground cover may be removed only for a footpath, for access, for normal maintenance, or to cut growth over 3 feet for a view. Trees, saplings, shrubs and groundcover are scored in 25 foot by 50 foot segments, and vegetation may be removed from a segment only if the remaining tree and sapling score stays at or above 25 points. A 6 foot permanent footpath is allowed, and a 12 foot temporary access path is allowed during permitted construction. From 50 to 150 feet, at least 25 percent of the woodland buffer must remain natural woodland. Impervious surfaces may cover no more than 30 percent of a lot in the protected shoreland, and coverage above 20 percent triggers a stormwater system designed to infiltrate new runoff.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1gc.nh.gov 2
RSA 482-A:3 is the permit a hardscaping or grading crew hits first. No person may excavate, remove, fill, dredge or construct any structure in or on any bank, flat, marsh or swamp in and adjacent to state waters without a permit from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. The application has to be signed, certified by the town or city clerk, accompanied by a nonrefundable fee, and backed by written notice to abutters, normally by certified mail or another method that proves receipt. The chapter carries exemptions a contractor should know. Repairing or replacing an existing structure where no excavation, filling or dredging is involved is outside the permit. Maintaining certain legally built drainage, stormwater and firefighting features is outside it where conditions are met. Certain temporary seasonal docks and repairs to registered docks are handled separately. Some minimum impact work is covered by filed notices rather than full permits, including timber cutting, recreational trails, utility maintenance and culvert repair. Enforcement bites on the company's future work as well as the current job. The department may deny extensions of review deadlines for an applicant found within the past 5 years to have violated the chapter or misrepresented material facts, and it may suspend review of an application while an enforcement action is pending. Separately, RSA 483-B:9 requires a permit under RSA 485-A:17 once a contiguous disturbed area exceeds 50,000 square feet partly or wholly within the protected shoreland, and requires erosion and sediment controls substantially equivalent to department rules on new earth moving.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1gc.nh.gov 2
New Hampshire does not license irrigation contractors. RSA 310-A:160 names irrigation designers among the green industry professionals whose work the landscape architect statute does not restrict, and no separate state irrigation registration exists. The control on irrigation work comes from drinking water law instead. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services runs cross connection control through its Drinking Water and Groundwater Bureau. The department states that the rules require public water systems to protect against risks associated with cross connections, that a system must know where high hazard and low hazard cross connections exist, and that it must ensure devices are installed and that each device is tested routinely to confirm proper operation. The rule reference the department gives is Env-Dw 505 of the New Hampshire Code of Administrative Rules. The practical consequence for a landscaping company is that the enforcing party is usually not the state. It is the municipal water system whose main the irrigation line taps. That system's own cross connection control program decides which backflow prevention assembly is acceptable for the hazard level, who is allowed to test it, and how often the test is repeated, so the tester certification and the test interval have to be confirmed with the water utility for each town rather than assumed statewide. Plumbing licensure is a separate question and is in motion: the old chapter RSA 329-A, titled Plumbers and Plumbing, is marked repealed on the legislature's own index, so current plumbing requirements for a potable water connection should be confirmed with the Office of Professional Licensure and Certification before a crew makes the tie-in.
Grading, planting trees, setting fence posts, trenching irrigation lines and digging footings for a wall all put a landscaping crew into New Hampshire's Underground Facility Damage Prevention System under RSA 374. The chapter works through a central notification system. RSA 374:52 provides that upon receipt of notice of a proposed excavation the system shall notify all affected members, which is how a single call reaches every utility that owns buried plant in the area. RSA 374:53 sets the clock on the other side. After receiving notice from a proposed excavator or from the system, an operator must mark the location of its underground facilities in the area of the proposed excavation within 72 hours, and weekends and legal holidays do not count toward that period. The operator and the excavator may agree on a later marking time. Once the marks are down, the excavator is responsible for maintaining them, which is a real exposure on a multi week landscape build where paint and flags get buried under stockpiled loam. Operators are not required to locate facilities they do not own, and the statute gives the example of lines running from a house to a garage, so private service lines on a client's property are not covered by the markout and have to be located another way. RSA 374:56 gives the enforcement teeth. If someone is excavating carelessly or dangerously in a way that could damage a buried facility, the operator that owns or maintains the facility may commence an action for a temporary restraining order or injunction.
Because New Hampshire issues no landscaping contractor license, there is no state license number to print on a truck, a website or an estimate. The rules that bind a landscaping advertisement are a title rule and a disclosure rule. The title rule is RSA 310:13. A person who is not licensed or otherwise authorized, and who advertises as a licensed profession, engages in licensed activity, holds himself out as qualified, or calls himself a licensed professional, is engaged in unlawful practice. The same applies after a license has been suspended or revoked. Running the words landscape architect, landscape architecture or any variant in your advertising without the license therefore reaches a statute, not merely a trade preference, and RSA 310-A:160 repeats that every exempt green industry professional and every other licensed design professional is still barred from using the title. The disclosure rule is RSA 358-A:2. Paragraph X-a makes it an unfair or deceptive act to fail to disclose the business's legal name, street address and telephone number. Paragraph IX covers advertising services without intending to sell them as advertised. Paragraph V covers claiming that services have characteristics, uses or benefits they do not have, or claiming a status, affiliation or connection the business does not have. The board's own rules hold licensees to the same standard, with Lsa 501.03(c)(2) requiring that a licensee advertise only in a truthful manner, stating the services the licensee is qualified and prepared to perform, and Lsa 501.03(c)(3) barring falsified or exaggerated qualifications.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1gc.nh.gov 2gc.nh.gov 3gencourt.state.nh.us 4
The penalty for claiming a credential you do not hold is set in RSA 310:13. After notice and an opportunity to be heard under RSA 310:10, and an affirmative finding of unlawful practice, a board may impose a fine that cannot exceed the greater of the person's gain or economic benefit from the violation or $10,000 per offense, and each violation counts as a separate offense. The board, the attorney general, or a county or municipal prosecuting attorney where the practice occurred may seek an order stopping the conduct, and an injunction without bond is available to any board. The injunction does not replace any other civil, criminal or regulatory remedy. The office may also ask to see a person's license at the place of business or wherever the business is conducted. For someone who does hold the license, RSA 310:12 allows a reprimand, suspension, revocation or probation, administrative fines up to $3,000 per offense or $300 per day for a continuing violation, and recovery of investigation and prosecution costs capped at $10,000. RSA 310-A:152 adds a criminal edge specific to this profession: stamping or sealing documents after a license has expired or been revoked is a class B misdemeanor unless the license has been renewed, reinstated or reissued. Verification is public. The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification runs a License Lookup page that links to New Hampshire Online Verification, and the office tells the public to contact a board directly if that board is not listed. The office also charges $10.00 for a written license verification.
Sourcesgc.nh.gov 1gc.nh.gov 2gc.nh.gov 3oplc.nh.gov 4oplc.nh.gov 5
With no state trade license to carry, the paperwork a New Hampshire landscaping company actually files is local and general. Right of way work is permitted city by city. Rochester is a worked example: the city states that before excavating in the city right of way you must complete and file an excavation permit application with the Public Works Department, and that a completed form and a $100.00 permit fee go to the City Engineer at 45 Old Dover Road. Larger cities run the same function through their public works or highway divisions, so confirm the permit, the fee and any surety requirement with each city before trenching an irrigation main or cutting a curb. Business registration runs through state law. RSA 349:1 requires a sole proprietor doing business under a name other than his own, and a partnership, trust or association doing business in the state, to register the trade name. Corporations, limited liability companies and limited partnerships are excluded unless they do business under a trade name other than the name they are registered under, and the statute measures a proposed name against the records of the secretary of state. Insurance is the other non negotiable. RSA 281-A:5 requires a covered employer to secure compensation for employees by buying coverage from a company licensed to write workers compensation insurance in New Hampshire and filing evidence of that coverage with the commissioner, by insuring domestic workers under RSA 281-A:6, or by giving the commissioner satisfactory proof of financial ability to pay compensation directly.
These are common details other guides publish about New Hampshire, but we could not verify them from the agency source. Confirm them directly before relying on them.
No. New Hampshire issues no state landscaping or general contractor license, so planting, lawn installation, grading and hardscaping need no state occupational credential. RSA 310-A:160 expressly leaves landscape design for farms, residences and commercial sites unrestricted where no stamp is required, and leaves builders free to supervise installation of landscape projects.
Not without the license. RSA 310:13 makes it unlawful practice to advertise as a licensed profession, hold yourself out as qualified, or call yourself a licensed professional without authorization. RSA 310-A:160 repeats that exempt green industry professionals may not use the title landscape architect. Call the work landscape design or landscape contracting instead.
When a stamp is demanded. RSA 310-A:160 exempts design for farms, residences and institutional or commercial sites only where neither the client nor the reviewing government entity requires a licensed landscape architect's stamp. Once a planning board or a commercial client asks for a stamped plan, RSA 310-A:152 requires a licensee's signature and seal on it.
The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification publishes a $160.00 application fee, a $20.00 certificate fee, a $160.00 renewal fee and a $160.00 reinstatement fee for the Board of Landscape Architects. Reciprocity is $160.00 whether or not you hold a council record. A written license verification costs $10.00.
RSA 310-A:150 requires 30 hours of continuing education in each biennial renewal period, awarded at one credit per contact hour actually attended. The board's rules cap carryforward at 15 professional development hours, cap board service credit at 6 hours, and require attendance records to be kept for at least 4 years.
Under Lsa 304.01 you must show the other state's requirements are substantially equivalent to or higher than New Hampshire's. If you hold a Council of Landscape Architectural Registration Boards certificate, it must be sent directly to the board office. The fee is $160.00 either way, per the office's published schedule.
Yes. The Division of Pesticide Control requires a commercial applicator license to apply pesticides on another's property. RSA 430:33 bars commercial application without a valid certificate of registration, and requires proof of competency and of financial responsibility. The homeowner exemption in RSA 430:46 covers occupants treating their own living unit, not contractors.
RSA 430:33 sets commercial applicator registration at $60 per year, private applicator registration at $20 per year and a permit at $20 per year, with no fee for nonprofit or governmental entities. RSA 430:34 adds a $15 examination fee for each category or commodity group in which an applicator is examined.
No. RSA 483-B:9 bars fertilizer within 25 feet of the reference line of public water, and inside the 50 foot waterfront buffer allows pesticides and herbicides to be applied only by licensed horticultural professionals or under a special permit. Vegetation cutting in that buffer is also scored and limited.
Yes. RSA 482-A:3 bars excavating, removing, filling, dredging or building any structure in or on a bank, flat, marsh or swamp in and adjacent to state waters without a permit from the Department of Environmental Services, with a clerk certified application, a nonrefundable fee and written notice to abutters.
There is no license number to display, because the state issues none for landscaping. RSA 358-A:2, X-a makes it an unfair or deceptive act to fail to disclose the business's legal name, street address and telephone number. Paragraph IX reaches advertising services you do not intend to sell as advertised.
The Office of Professional Licensure and Certification runs a License Lookup page that links to New Hampshire Online Verification, and tells the public to contact a board directly if it is not listed. For pesticide work, the Division of Pesticide Control at the Department of Agriculture, Markets and Food holds the applicator records.
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