The Unintended Consequences of Water Conservation

brown lawn

We’re in the midst of an historic drought here in California and, as a result, cities have instituted mandatory landscape watering restrictions and cut off irrigation to parks and other city properties. Lawns are brown and trees are dying.

Back in May, two University of California Cooperative Extension horticulturalists, Donald Hodel and Dennis Pittenger issued a provocative position paper “9%: Perspective on the California drought and landscape water use” that argues that these restrictions have been short sighted.

In addition to the amenities and benefits we would lose by letting landscapes go dry, many hidden costs are associated with this strategy, and little, if anything, is ever said about them. Letting landscapes go dry will lead to damage and even death of plants. For trees such damage could mean dropping branches and even tree failures, leading to significant property damage and human injury or even death; lawsuits would certainly follow. As landscapes go dry, the risk of fires would increase. In changing over landscapes to low-water using plants or to non-planted, non-irrigated areas, labor and material costs for plants, installing or retrofitting irrigation systems, and other materials could be significant. Converting lawns to artificial turf is also expensive.

Hodel and Pittenger’s main point is that if we cut off landscape irrigation entirely, we’d only save around 4.5% of all water use in the state and that we should have thought more carefully about the restrictions we put in place.

My own two cents is that our elected officials used landscape irrigation as a convenient scapegoat to direct our attention away from powerful agricultural interests. The result has been dead trees, melting synthetic grass and shady contractors installing ugly heat generating gravel landscapes with lawn rebate money. Part of the problem is that, to many political leaders, plants are just a kind of background material like the sad potted ficus trees on the set of a public access TV show. Who cares if you pull the water? Never mind that insects, animals and people call those landscapes home.

Two ways out of this: a focus on long term solutions in our civic discourse and instilling a love of plants (we could call it horticultural literacy) in the next generation. Both are tall orders. In the meantime, I recommend reading Hodel and Pittenger’s paper. They are, perhaps, more enamored of the lawn than I but their call for thinking before we jump is necessary and refreshing.

What do you think?

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11 Comments

  1. This also addresses, in part, my complaints with drip irrigation as a solution, as it essentially creates underground pots for plants rather than a living environment. California is a rare gem in the US for its biodiversity, but most people outside of it are not aware that it has a true Mediterranean climate. We move here with our eastern deciduous forest ideas of seasons and plants which demand more water…those ‘Crystal Palace” lobelias can be substituted with the lovely blue native Phacelia! There seem to be many positive solutions, and education is the key. Thanks for the insights.

  2. Plant the right plants! The Texas Ranger sage, Little John bottlebrush and lantana ground cover are doing just fine in our yard and we haven’t given it a drop of extra water. In fact, the Texas Ranger sage has never looked better – lots of blooms and full of bees. The only plants getting water are the three citrus trees because that is an edible investment. The front lawn is going away but not becoming a heat-producing gravel wasteland. Fortunately the homes in our neighbourhood that have gone gravel have interspersed drought tolerant plants so their yards are not completely barren. As for the neighbourhood trees, 90% are surviving, but a few shows signs of stress and disease/pests.

    On the other side of the water conserving (albeit gravel installing) neighbours are the ones who feel a disconnect from the drought because we are in San Diego – the drought hasn’t come this far south or is a government fabrication so it has nothing to do with them. Fortunately those people are not the majority.

  3. Many of the trees, plants, grass, etc. that are suffering through this drought do not belong in this climate in the first place. It’s sad to see them die, however, the New Normal should be planting native plants that know how to withstand droughts. Lawns and grass (the kind you see back east and facing Old English Manor houses) do not belong ANYWHERE in the region. The same goes for many trees as well. People in Los Angeles are starved for greenspace and natural surroundings and sometimes that clouds their opinions. I remember a controversy several years back where DWP wanted to cover reservoirs to reduce evaporation and keep the water cleaner; however people cried that they needed to see the man-made “lakes” for their emotional health and well-being. But they were NEVER created for that purpose. If you want lakes, go to Minnesota. And most people don’t notice, but if you travel just outside urban LA, to Tujunga Wash, the hills around Eagle Rock or some other place left to its own devices, you will see how the southland is supposed to look. It’s brown.There are too many people, too much agriculture and too many non-native plants in California right now, which is why you can drive down the street and see green (now brown) everywhere. We don’t need bermuda or fescue lawns at all. And we need need less gingko, liquidambar, and maple trees and more scrub oak and manzanita. Los Angeles, and California in general, has been cultivated and landscaped to death.

  4. The Governor’s water restrictions are laughable. Residential water use in California only accounts for about 10% of the State’s total water use. Net net, his calls to cut residential water use by 25% will only result in a 2.5% water savings. A proverbial drop in the bucket. Meanwhile, big ag, which contributes only 2.5% to the State’s total GDP, has been relatively immune and continues to grow alfalfa, rice, almonds, walnuts, etc., all of which consume vast amounts of water. I guess we know where the campaign donations are coming from.

  5. Where are the graywater converting businesses? They should be making a *mint* in L.A. right now, but oh wait, a lot of people really can’t be bothered with going through the trouble of diverting perfectly good (used) water to their landscapes. I’ll be frank, the people who are happy to turn their yards into gravel or get rid of their yards entirely (as evident by the GIANT house ‘remodels’ on tiny 1940’s suburban land parcels), just don’t care about gardening in general. You’re preaching to the choir though when it comes to planting natives and truly drought tolerant plants! Add gray water to the mix (for fruit trees) and I think we can actually do decently for all of these water saving measures. My dad hauls out buckets of sink water from washing the dishes for his guava, jujube and vining gourds and loofahs. Our orange tree is looking a little sad though, hoping my brother will get that drainage going on the washing machine soon.

  6. I live in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. I could not agree more with previous posts that emphasize education about California Native Plants. People are attempting to grow plants that were never meant to flourish here. Big Box home improvement stores are only to willing to encourage that. In Southern California it is nothing short of absurd to grow a lawn. It took a while for it all to get this Fucked Up, it will take longer for it to be set right, but installing low water usage plants (native) is a decent place to start.

  7. The solution? Get government regulation out of the water market…heck out of all commodity markets! Government decided that cheap water to urban cities was more important than sufficient water to the farmers. So homeowners built up their landscaping, pools and buildings installed fountains large and small. If they existed in an open market, they would be forced to compete with farmers for water, and the farmers would be able to pay more, thus incentivizing homeowners to use less.

    These “unintended” consequences are CONSEQUENCES just the same, and could have been predicted. But politicians are quick to pass laws and regulations without thinking out what will happen in real life.

  8. It’s difficult to find really old native Californians. Most people flooded into CA after WWII. My mother is an exception born in Long Beach in 1927 – she’s seen a lot and commented a lot about the growth and consequences. I, too, grew up out in Orange County in the late ‘40s. By the time I finished high school, I had come to a conclusion about California: you can either grow food in CA or People, but you can do both well. Particularly if you are going to grow food the way it has been done in the past 100 years. I moved from CA when I was 18 and have rarely been back since. I find other areas of the county much saner.

  9. In my hometown of Sonora, California many of the trees in the downtown park were removed this last summer because of the drought. The gentleman who was behind getting this event organized was very proud of himself and posted all kinds of pictures. Many comments were very kind but I asked him “Why were the removed trees not chipped up and put down as a cover mulch to protect the soil & retain moisture for the remaining trees?” He answered me that “The money was better by selling them to be burned-up for energy.”

    • Oh, that’s awful. And what a shame. I googled your town and it looks like a nice, historic place.

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