[Female narrator]: In 2015 the National Weather Service
reported Utah's precipitation levels in the majority of the state
as fifty percent of the normal year-to-date total.
A stage one advisory was released in Salt Lake City by early April,
notifying residents to prepare for shortages
if precipitation did not increase.
As Utahns face reduced snow pack and record setting high temperatures,
there's a greater need for water conservation.
Researchers at Utah State University indicate the difference
could be made in landscaping.
[Kelly Kopp] Especially here in the state of Utah
that's where most people's water goes,
so anywhere from seventy to seventy-five percent
of per capita water use is going to irrigate landscapes.
Um, which is a pretty shocking number when people hear it.
They don't realize it they think,
"Well, you know, it's the toilet in my home",
"It's the sink, I'm brushing my teeth."
Those things yes, of course they use water.
But in terms, of the vast majority, it's out- for outdoor irrigation.
Well when the water district looks for a place to conserve water,
the landscape becomes a much more.. viable option
than say, no more showers, or no more cooking, or something like that.
We're engineering greater efficiency indoors.
But it's more difficult to do that in the land- outdoor,
water use, in the landscape,
because, you have a lot of variables, that are involved,
in the way that people use water on their landscapes.
It's a challenge to make it real simple.
You know there's no "yes and no" answer.
We live in an arid state. It's drought prone.
The population is growing.
We're looking at climate change impacts.
And so, stretching the existing developed water further
is a very important thing to do.
[Female narrator]: While making this change is important, it's not necessarily easy.
The current landscape design is based off gardening styles in England,
where it reports at least twice as much precipitation as Utah.
[Joanna Endter-Wada]: We've had very traditional landscapes for a long time.
They've become pretty ubiquitous across, the urban environment.
[Ralph Whitesides]: People plant, what they like.
And I think in many cases, they plant what has been historically,
the vegetation, that they grew up with.
In some cases, people who move to Utah, move from the East Coast,
or their ancestors came from western Europe,
and therefore they think that the plants that are right,
are the ones that came with them from the east Coast or western Europe.
It's what- what w-w-we often see around here.
So it's what p-people are used to seeing,
w-w-what they're accustomed to planting.
We have different neighborhood aesthetics of, what people are used to having,
and what people may, want their neighbors to have.
[Ralph Whitesides]: They fail to acknowledge the fact
that they moved to the desert.
And by being in the desert, they are committed,
to growing what grows well in the desert.
Maybe, we don't have a lush, super green.. landscape.
In- in our home.
Allow it to go more brown.
[Joanna Endter-Wada]: It's not the aesthetic, that most people are used to.
They want the lawn to look green.
And so, um, one of the recommendations is try to design lawns, that you,
design landscapes, that perhaps use less lawn,
but work in other plant material, that can be green, can be, various textures,
can be, different colors, that could be equally beautiful,
but reducing, the kinds of plants that may need more water.
[Female narrator]: The first alternative landscape
that comes to mind is a xeriscape.
It's really easy to suggest, "Well what we need to do is get rid of all the grass,
and we need to bring in rocks.. and cactus.. and buffalo skulls."
[Female narrator]: But it might not be the best option.
W-what has been found in uh, research studies and that type of thing, is..
if a person just trans-, uh, uh, t-t-takes out the turf,
p-puts in x-x-xeris- xeriscape,
in some cases it uses as much or more water.
Because people want to have dense plantings, which t-t-take water.
Um, they don't know how to, how to irrigate them.
And they irrigate them too often.
And so, t-they s-s-some t-t-times use it, use as much or actually more water.
So, um, it's really, you know, k-k-k- knowing w-what you want to plant,
having a, uh, a good design.
And then taking care of it properly.
And then, i-i-i-it can really save on the resources.
There's lots of ways to save.
You don't have to go all the way
to a strictly, uh, desert type, xeriscape, or low water, type landscape.
[Female narrator]: Cache Valley resident David Wallace
has been working on his alternative landscape since he moved here in 2000.
[David Wallace]: I didn't really like how the lawn was- was.
There- there was a grass out here in the park strips,
and it was a real pain to deal with,
and, uh, so I just unarbitrary took the grass out, killed it all.
And put in several native plants.
And I liked how that went so I just kept on going.
First it was this park strip here,
then- then the one across the driveway,
and then, eventually I did the whole front lawn.
I've got several zones.
I've got a desert zones in the parking strips,
and uh, uh, kinda foothill zones over here, and merging into a montane zone.
I even have a, a moist area, uh, in the yard, uh, so it's not really xeric,
But it's uh, completely xeric anyway, but it's- it's natural.
Uh, I don't water the uh, park strips at all.
That's just completely natural.
It- it's really kind of funny
you don't ever do anything in your front lawn, it just sits there.
You can ask anybody.
Uh, uh, or look at an almost anyone.
So it's really nice.
I have a front lawn that I, get pleasure every time I look at it.
[Female narrator]: But changing in the landscape isn't the only way to save.
Keeping the turf grass is okay. It's just knowing how to care for it.
[Sound of sprinkler running]:
[Paul Johnson]: Turf gets a bad name, because it needs, it-
and in order to remain green in the middle of the s-s-s-summer here
it needs to be irrigated.
There are... good places for turf.
Uh, if they're in high use areas,
especially in yards where people have kids,
or pets, or picnic, or use the yard a lot for gatherings.
There, there is place.
T-there's a lot of misconceptions, about it's w-w-w-it's, it's, i-it's water needs.
Um, people think it's an aquatic plant.
It needs to be sopping wet. It needs water every day.
Um, but it really, there's it d-d-d- it doesn't need as water
as what p-p-p-people often think that it does.
People don't understand exactly how much water it takes to water a landscape.
And so the tendancy in Utah is to over water.
People's first reaction when they see any problem in the landscape
is to bump water up.
And, I think that that's a natural reaction in this climate.
I mean we, we're a desert.
We're a cool desert, but we are a desert.
And so the first instinct is to increase the water use.
Um, but what people don't necessa- that's a,
and they can get a visual signal to do that.
But what they don't get very quickly, is a visual signal of over watering.
And that's especially true for grasses,
grasses tend to be able to take a lot of excess water
without showing any detrimental effects.
But ultimately they will.
They'll start to have diseases, they'll start to have increased insect damage...
weeds, you know there are a lot of negative consequences.
Vegetation, that is not the desired vegetation,
still utilizes space, it utilizes water, and it utilizes nutrients,
and in many b- many cases becomes invasive.
And as it becomes invasive, it utilizes even more water in an area.
And as a result of that, weeds are one of our single biggest concerns,
as far as water consumption is concerned.
One of the big things that we found
is there's a difference between, the types of irrigation systems people have.
People who have automated irrigation systems, tend to over water,
a little bit more.
And that's a big misconception.
People think of automated irrigation systems as being more efficient.
I'm confident that we could... use half as much water,
without even changing our landscapes, if people would just manage the water better.
Most homes though, here in the valley, could maybe get,
get by with irrigating every, five days t-t-t-to may- every week usually.
T-t-the most that might be needed is every three days.
If you have a real s-s-s-sandy sight.
If they really want to save water, I'll tell you what they should do:
Don't use your automated irrigation system for a while.
Hand water your lawn, and get out there and observe it,
and see, um, how the plants react to different kinds of water
and where and when you can, cut back.
I think the most important thing people can do,
as an initial step in landscape water conservation,
is to, turn their water off, and wait till they see signs
of.. just the very beginning of water stress in their landscape.
And then water it.
Well when, g-g-g-grass turns brown in the s-s-s-summer time, people think it dies.
No it just g-g-g- it's, it's actually just kinda g-g-g-going dormant
at that time.
It- that's it's natural cycle in the, in- in the, heat of the year.
Um, it'll come back, j-j-just fine.
It's, part of a natural ecological, reaction
that plants have, to, uh, constrained water.
[Female narrator]: The biggest problem, they suggest, lies in education.
[Joanna Endter-Wada]: Really, knowing how much water they are using,
many people don't know how much water they use,
or how much water- how much they pay for that water.
And then how much the plants need.
And so uh, total, volume, gallon amount, that comes to their household,
part of it's indoor water use, part of it's outdoor water use,
and, uh, benchmarks for how much they should be using aren't often provided.
Water bills are not very good at conveying the information
that they need to.
To let people know whether or not they're.. being efficient
given the landscape they have
or whether, there's room, uh, and capacity to conserve.
The, the water water managers that work for the water districts,
uh, I think have a real challenging job.
Because they have to... they have to make sure there's enough water,
but they also have to make sure
that they... sell enough water to keep their water.. districts.. solvent.
It's a complicated system.
I think this larger question's going to hit us more.
The trade-offs, of how we use water, in the urban environment,
and how we use it for landscapes, what kinds of landscapes,
what kinds of irrigation systems, where and when we can reuse water,
collecting rainwater, reusing some on your own property,
or where at a city level we can do more reuse,
or irrigate landscapes with secondary water systems
that don't have to go through the full cost
of being fully treated to be cullinary water.
So, um, I think the important points are there are things that individuals can do..
on their own properties.
And there are things that we can do collectively, as communities,
to be more water efficient, in supportiing each other with those attempts,
and working together to try to, uh, conserve their scarse resource.
I think it's really... important that all of us take it seriously
and do what we can to save,
because... that helps us to avoid,
uh, the real... draconian steps or restrictions
that can, that can cause problems.
[Joanna Endter-Wada]: The big frontier, in, uh, urban water demand management,
and conservation is in landscape irrigation.