In Defense of Lawns
The fields of fresh sod at the Delta Bluegrass farm stretch out for acres in every direction along the marshy banks of the Middle River in the Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta: Thousands of thirsty future lawns soaking in the warm California spring sun.
It’s enough to make a drought shamer cry, if that wouldn’t be a frivolous waste of water. But these aren’t the lawns you know and love, that familiar thick carpet of green shorn to a few inches high and lovingly, excessively watered every night. These lawns are the trademarked product of nearly a decade of research and development aimed at saving both precious water resources and a precious American tradition. As pressure mounts to replace thirsty sod with just about anything else, Delta Bluegrass is supplying more homeowners, businesses, and government agencies with a nearly identical replacement: grass. Albeit grown from proprietary blends of native grasses that, unlike pure Kentucky Blue, are thoroughly at home in the state’s dry heat.
It’s a testament to the strength of the lawn’s mystique that it has survived so many of California’s natural dry spells. But the current drought has set about the greatest assault on the aesthetic of suburban Western life in recent memory. As the severity of the drought has set in, a lush, healthy lawn has come to represent the pinnacle of selfish excess. Sod sellers are hurting.
Combined residential, government, and business use of developed water sources in California adds up to about 20 percent of the total supply. But it’s far more politically feasible to ask residents to tear out lawns, drain pools, and take shorter showers than it is to cut back on the state’s agriculture industry, which produces half of the domestic fruit and vegetable supply and employs about 15 percent of the state’s labor force. Cities and counties are imposing strict limits on residential irrigation and offering incentives worth thousands of dollars to subsidize tearing out lawns and replacing them with drought-tolerant landscaping: Santa Clara County has spent more than $2 million on its program since 2013.
On Wednesday, the State Water Resources Control Board announced that the state reduced water usage by nearly 30 percent in May—which was atypically cool and wet—the steepest reduction since Gov. Jerry Brown called on Californians to cut back. “It is clear from this report that many communities have made a commitment as Californians to scale back outdoor watering and conserve—and the effort shows,” board chair Felicia Marcus said in a statement. “The hot summer months are here. Californians are creative. We can fix the leaks, let the lawn go brown, and take shorter showers while using just enough water to save trees and prevent disease.”
We want to feel like we’re doing everything we can to “solve” or “hack” the drought because we want to feel like we can control our environment and our destiny. It’s a dream as fantastic as the one that sowed all that grass in the first place. But lawns, much like their rural counterpart the almond tree, may be just too convenient of a scapegoat.
Cities proclaim that “brown is the new green.” The incentive programs are working, but many homeowners are opting for wood chips and succulents that can require as much irrigation as those maligned lawns. More sports fields are converted to fake turf made of ground tire rubber, despite evidence that it has made thousands of kids sick.
Lawns are not solely frivolous, and tearing them all out could have a variety of negative consequences for the environment and for communities. Like any other plant, turf grasses sucks up carbon dioxide and expels oxygen, and planting the right varieties can contribute to the health of local ecosystems by providing habitat. Lawns protect against urban heat islanding, a condition prevalent in poor and urban communities that don’t have much vegetation, unlike the ground-up tires in artificial turf that will later reside at the landfill.
So, Why Should You Care? Lawns are also a drain on the nation.
Moderation is a difficult sell during disaster. But businesses like Delta Bluegrass are working hard to convince Californians that grass does not have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Thoughtful water management, in the form of drip irrigation systems or reduced watering schedules, could result in more conservation than mindless turf conversion.
This won’t be easy. While Delta develops its grasses in a controlled R & D environment in conjunction with scientists and academics, Brian Nettz relies on trial and error at Presidio Golf Course in San Francisco, where he’s been the superintendent for more than a decade. Nettz installed Delta’s native bentgrass blend several years ago, but it simply didn’t work out.
“It was an attempt long on odds but worth trying anyway,” he said. “Textbooks are very often simply wrong.”
About 15 percent of the course is now made up of a variety of other drought-tolerant grass blends—difficult to establish at first, according to Nettz, but far less thirsty when they’re settled. Only 2 percent of the course is watered at “normal” levels. But lately Nettz has turned much of his attention to biochar, a charcoal additive made in Colorado that increases moisture retention in soil, making whatever water is used last much longer. “This is a very new product, although the ancient Amazonians used it agriculturally,” he said. “To our knowledge, we are the only course using this product for this specific purpose on fairways at this scale.”
The Presidio also operates a drone to scope out the course for broken and clogged sprinklers. Next year it plans to upgrade to an automated drone with thermo-imaging to see where all the water is going. “We have a facility full of progressive thinkers. I have been given a lot of freedom to leverage my practices,” Nettz said. That freedom goes so far that the facility uses goats as lawn mowers. “On the whole, we here are committed to challenging the envelope. It’s the right thing to do for both the environment and the bottom line.”
Despite all of the work being done to conserve water—San Francisco’s residents are strongly encouraged to cut back 10 percent, while irrigators face mandatory 25 percent reductions—Presidio Golf Course is still a golf course, which means that these days it’s not particularly popular with the general, non-golfing public.
Moderation may be a difficult sell, but it’s something California could use right now. Moderation did not get us into this mess in the first place. Moderation did not pump water across hundreds of miles to grow nonnative plants for national and international export. Moderation did not drill out our aquifers, it did not plant all those thirsty lawns, and it does not set sprinklers to pump every single day.
“The funny thing about grass is everyone thinks they know how to grow it,” said Nettz. “I field calls from homeowners several times a year, and everyone thinks they have to water every night. It’s simply not necessary. We don’t water every night out here.”
It seems the drought has inspired more emotional reactions than logical ones. This is understandable—imagining life without water is rather terrifying. But this is not a great starting point for long-term decision making. With more than a dozen species of grasses native to California, one of the biggest problems with the lawn may be that we simply have the wrong one.
This is, at least, what Delta Bluegrass is trying to tell lawn lovers across the state. They run tours of their sod farm for landscapers across Northern California, who in turn try to convince homeowners to invest in less thirsty sod. Their delivery trucks are emblazoned on all sides with “50% WATER SAVINGS” in huge block type. They get phone calls about them almost every day. (They would not, however, share any sales figures.) While traditional sod companies are reporting that business is down about a third, Delta says it’s doing better than ever, though of its 1,200 total acres, only a few dozen are native no-mow blends.
Sod is not Delta’s only business. The company is just one part of Zuckerman Family Farms, which has grown potatoes, asparagus, and other crops on the delta for more than 100 years. This spring, it planted its first almond orchard.
Related stories on TakePart:
• The Only California Farmers Surrounded by Water Agree to Use Less
• California Cities Really, Really Want Residents to Kill Their Lawns
Original article from TakePart
