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39 Nat. Resources & Env't 34 (2024-2025)
Keep My Water off Your Nonfunctional Turf: Trends in Landscape Conservation

handle is hein.journals/nre39 and id is 36 raw text is: 34 | nr&e summer 2024 Keep My Water Off Your Nonfunctional Turf Trends in Landscape Conservation Gregor MacGregor Zncreasing aridification across the West has become a point of national discourse and regional contention. The cur- rent drought contingency plans on the Colorado River, crafted between 2007 and 2019, are set to expire in 2026. The states in the basin are facing off with competing proposals to address a shrinking supply of water, while tribes and Mexico press for recognition of their claims in the negotiations. Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and the federal government are arguing in front of the U.S. Supreme Court over how the waters of the Rio Grande can be split and how fundamental aspects of feder- alism impact the dispute. These conflicts, and many more at the local level, are being driven by what scientists have dubbed a megadrought,' the driest 20 years on a paleo-reconstructed record going back to 800 CE. Flows in the Colorado River basin have fallen 20% over that timeframe. Even winters with abundant snowpack have failed to bolster reservoir levels as drier soils and air soak up the potential excess. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scien- tists Chris Milly and Krista Dunne used advanced computer modeling to predict future supply scenarios based on changes to both temperature and precipitation patterns under a range of continued greenhouse gas emissions. They concluded that each additional degree Celsius in warming would result in a 9.3% reduction in flows. In high-emissions scenarios pairing projected temperature and precipitation pattern change, flows in the basin could increase 3% or fall by 40% compared to his- torical values. P.C.D. Milly & K.A. Dunne, Colorado River Flow Dwindles as Warming-Driven Loss ofReflective Snow Energizes Evaporation, 367 Science 1252 (2020). This growing scarcity has brought more scrutiny to how we use water and whether that use meets our economic, cul- tural, and moral expectations in a dry land. As a result, some communities are eliminating the irrigation or installation of nonfunctional turf. Different definitions exist from state to state and between neighboring municipalities, but if you only step on grass to cut it, that's nonfunctional turf. This does not tend to include residential lawns, golf courses, or public parks; instead, the definition is aimed at turf planted alongside high- way exits and shopping mall parking lots and in street medians. This nonfunctional turf accounts for about a third of all irri- gated grass in the desert metropolis of Las Vegas, totaling some six square miles. Stopping the irrigation of climactically inappropriate orna- mental grass in the West presents an attainable pathway to address the region's water woes. Doing so may only represent a small fraction of needed conservation in the region, but it is part of the larger picture of bringing our water use and water supply in balance. A Brief History of Landscape Conservation Efforts The progenitor of nonfunctional turf bans was municipal con- servation efforts aimed at reducing outdoor water use on residential lawns. These programs date back to at least the 1980s, when Denver Water introduced its xeriscaping program. The term xeriscape combines the Greek word for dry- xeros-with the word landscape and encourages landowners to plant their spaces with plants adapted to the semi-arid con- ditions of the West. An unfortunate tendency of landowners to hear the word zeroscape;' followed by a complete covering of lawn areas with rock, has led other agencies to use other terms like water-wise landscaping. Whatever the term, the goal remains to reduce outdoor water use in urban areas for lawn irrigation, which can account for 50% of residential water used in Colorado and up to 70% of residential water use in Arizona. R. Waskom & M. Neibauer, Water Conservation in and Around the Home (2014); Ariz. Dep't of Water Res., Conservation: Land- scaping-Residential & Professional (2024). Published in Naoturi Resources - Environment Volume 39, Number 1, Summer 2024. © 2024 by the American Bar Association. Reproduced with permission. All rights reserved. This information or any portion thereof may not be copied or disseminated in any form or by any means or stored in an electronic database or retrieval system without the express written consent of the American Bar Association.

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