New Dem Play | Promote alternative, more water-conserving foliage and irrigation methods for landscaping
Where It's Working | Denver, Colo., Nevada, California, and other states
Players | State and local officials, environmental groups
Water is the real source of the American West's growth and prosperity. And in some parts of the arid region, existing water supplies are already inadequate to meet the needs of people, agriculture, and the environment. Conservation can improve allocation of this precious resource, particularly when it comes to landscaping. In major Western cities, landscape watering and other outdoor uses guzzles 50 percent to 70 percent of the water used. As the world population increases by almost two billion in 20 years and the population of just seven arid Western states rises by 24 million, meeting the demand for water will become even more challenging.
"Xeriscape" (a trademarked term that combines the Greek word xeros, meaning dry, with the English word landscape) encompasses water-saving principles and practices that keep landscapes in bloom while reducing outdoor water use by 30 percent to 60 percent. The seven principles of Xeriscape grew from a task force of water, horticultural, and landscaping experts assembled by a public agency, Denver Water, in 1981 to extend existing water supplies to meet future demands. The group set out to demonstrate that it was possible to plant beautiful gardens and grow lawns that needed significantly less water. Through a combination of land donated by Denver Water and contributions from 55 landscape businesses, the task force designed and planted the nation's first demonstration garden in 1982. From there, the concept spread regionally, then nationally, and eventually abroad.
Cities and water departments have been the main champions of Xeriscape programs. A growing number of nongovernmental organizations are also springing up to supplement public Xeriscape programs. Denver Water's Xeriscape effort eventually blossomed into Xeriscape Colorado, Inc., an organization that promotes the concept and provides information on all aspects of water-wise gardening. Recently, (Xeriscape Colorado, Inc. has become a project of the Colorado WaterWise Council, an organization dedicated to the efficient use of the state's water. Neighboring New Mexico formed a similar nonprofit Xeriscape Council in 1987.
In the past, Xeriscape was thought of as a way to select and to plant the least thirsty flowers, shrubs and trees. But more recently, land owners and water utilities have come to recognize that efficient irrigation is just as important as proper plant selection. That's because even the most drought tolerant plants are unable to decline extra water drenched on them by well-meaning owners and landscapers. Thanks to new and improved irrigations technologies, over-watering is less and less a threat. New and emerging irrigation sensors can help to better identify appropriate irrigation levels by measuring and factoring in such conditions as temperature, rainfall, soil types, and landscapes.
To help disseminate and to standardize such promising new irrigation technologies, the US Environmental Protection Agency has launched a new program, Water Sense, to set performance standards and water use specifications for water efficient products, programs and practices. See www.epa.gov/watersense for details and frequent updates.
While many individuals have embraced Xeriscape out of concern for the environment, policy experts say even more would do so with the right financial incentives. Las Vegas, for example, is both raising its water prices and actually paying customers one dollar for every square foot of grass they replace with drought-tolerant foliage. Under the Southern Nevada Water Authority's Water Smart Landscapes program, property owners can qualify for rebates by converting at least 400 square feet of their lawns to Xeriscapes.
Similar programs are popping up in coastal California. The East Bay Municipal Utility District, which serves parts of Alameda and Contra Costa counties, estimates that it has saved 860,000 gallons of water a day with a program that reviews commercial and industrial outdoor water use and partially reimburses companies for changing their landscaping to drought-tolerant plantings and upgrading their irrigation systems.
Although Xeriscape will not entirely solve the West's growing water needs, it is an easy and cost-effective way for local governments nationwide to help stretch one of our most precious natural resources and avert contentious water conflicts in years to come.
Conservation & Xeriscape
www.denverwater.org/cons_xeriscape/cons_xeriscapeframe.html
XeriscapeTM Colorado
www.xeriscape.org or www.coloradowaterwise.org
Waterwise Xeriscape Program, City of Atlanta Bureau of Water
http://apps.atlantaga.gov/citydir/water/xeriscape.htm
Principles of Xeriscape, Southern Nevada Water Authority
http://www.snwa.com/html/land_xeri_principles.html
Irrigation Rebate Program, East Bay Municipal Utility District
www.ebmud.com/conserving_&_recycling/non_residential/
irrigation_programs/default.htm
Xeriscape Program, Arizona Municipal Water Users Association
www.amwua.org/conservation/landscape.htm
Water Sense Program, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
www.epa.gov/watersense
National XeriscapeTM Demonstration Program, U.S. Department of the Interior
http://www.usbr.gov/pmts/rivers/demand/xeris.html
Irrigation Association
www.irrigation.org/SWAT/Industry/
Jim Knopf, Waterwise Landscaping with Trees, Shrubs and Vines: A Xeriscape Guide for the Rocky Mountain Region, California and the Southwest, Chamisa Books, Boulder, Colorado, 1999.
Taylor's Guide to Water-Saving Gardening, Houghton Mifflin Co., 1990.
Mark Rumary, The Wayside Gardens Collection. Xeriscaping: Planning and Planting Low-Water Gardens, Sterling Publishing, Co., Inc., New York, 2001.
Gayle Weinstein, Xeriscape Handbook: A How-To-Guide to Natural Resource-Wise Gardening, Fulcrum Publishing, 1999.
Xeriscape Maintenance Journal: Evidence of Care, Volumes I-IV. Colorado WaterWise Council, POBOX 40202, Denver, CO 80204-0202
Liz Gardener
Manager of Water Conservation
Denver Water
1600 W. 12th Ave.
Denver, CO 80204
(303) 628-6325
(303) 628-6238 (fax)
Elizabeth.gardener@denverwater.org
Jan Mazurek
Director
Energy & Environment Project
Progressive Policy Institute
600 Pennsylvania Ave., SE, Suite 400
Washington, DC 20003
(202) 547-0001
(202) 544-5014 (fax)
jmazurek@ppionline.org
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