As a practicing professional geologist in the Commonwealth of Virginia I strongly support maintaining the Geologist certification program and amending the statutes to make licensure mandatory. Virginia geologists play a role that is vital to the safeguarding of life, health, property, and the environment, providing essential services to the public that require specific expertise. As such, I believe it is important to continue verification of minimum competency through examination. This “minimum competency” is not trivial, especially when viewed in the context of infrastructure design and the protection of natural resources. The decisions of a licensed professional geologist can have wide ranging impacts, and I feel it would be irresponsible to lessen the standard we are currently held to.