[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 3/9/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

March 9, 2009

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People –

 

Third-graders in Culver City raise and release the fish and learn about their behaviors and life cycle.

The Los Angeles Times

 

Going green, without a lawn

The San Diego Union Tribune

 

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Third-graders in Culver City raise and release the fish and learn about their behaviors and life cycle.

The Los Angeles Times – 3/09/09

By Catherine Ho

When they're first born, they're scared of their mom and dad.

No sooner had those words left Jim Solomon's mouth than the horrified cries of 35 third-graders crescendoed in unison:

 "Whaaaat?"

"It's because they might eat them," he explained.

Parents gobbling up their young was all but unthinkable to 8- and 9-year-olds that February morning. But Solomon, of the Santa Monica Wilderness Fly Fishers, spoke their language. Trout in the Classroom, a nationwide program that brings the art of raising trout to city classrooms, resonates with students by translating trout terms into kid-speak: A fly is the trout's steak sandwich. Pectoral fins are their car brakes. Ants are their chocolate cake.

 

The program gives third-graders at Linwood E. Howe Elementary in Culver City a lesson in trout anatomy and life cycle, from the time the trout are eggs fresh from the San Joaquin hatchery until their release into the wild. During the three-month journey, the students keep trout journals documenting the fish's size and appearance and take turns taking home and caring for a trout plush toy named Rainbow.

Last Friday, 93 giddy third-graders transported three rainbow trout fry -- baby fish -- from a tank in their classroom to the icy waters of Piru Creek in Los Padres National Forest. Against a backdrop of green mountains, they huddled over the white Ace Hardware bucket carrying the tiny trout, each no longer than 1 1/2 inches, and cheered as the fish took the plunge into the creek.

"Go, fish, go! Go, fish, go!" they chanted in unison.

Trout in the Classroom is taught in schools nationwide, including in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties. In Culver City, it began 15 years ago when Solomon, a lifelong fisherman, launched the program for his son's fifth-grade class. At its peak, the program was taught at seven schools in Culver City and Santa Monica. The number has since dwindled to two: Linwood E. Howe and El Marino Language School.

Although only four or five of every 100 fertilized eggs survive to become fry, hundreds of trout have been raised in classrooms and released over the years.

Solomon and third-grade teacher Lisa Schnauss have pushed hard to keep the tradition afloat. Solomon lectures the classes about trout behavior. He's been studying the topic since his mother first dropped him off at the Long Beach pier with a lunch bucket and a pole. Schnauss has transformed her classroom into trout central: Walls are covered with trout posters; framed trout sketches lean against bookshelves; a 3 1/2 -foot stuffed trout toy slumps over a file cabinet.

Since receiving the batch of fertilized trout eggs in late December, Schnauss painstakingly cared for the delicate fish, adjusting the water temperature, keeping the tank clean and feeding them. Of the 50 eggs they started with, only three made it to Piru Creek.

"It's hard to mimic nature," she said.

Part of a teaching philosophy called service learning, the program aims to broaden students' perspective beyond classroom walls. The equipment is donated by the Santa Monica Wilderness Fly Fishers, and the $1,700 for the school buses up to Piru Creek comes from grants from the Culver City Education Foundation.

Three months of hands-on education trains the children to be fluent in trout. Students who completed the program years ago can still rattle off fish facts without blinking an eye. But as they crowded near the edge of Piru Creek on Friday, the rims of their Dodger baseball caps bumping as they jostled their way to a prime viewing spot, it was clear they're still city kids at heart.

Watching the water swiftly sweep fallen leaves downstream, 8-year-old Julia Martin said: "It's like a freeway!"#

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-trout9-2009mar09,0,3026080.story?track=rss

 

Going green, without a lawn

Drought-tolerant gardens replacing lush yards

The San Diego Union Tribune – 3/09/09

By Michael Gardner and Mike Lee

 

 

GRASS FACTS

 Lawns cover about 40 million acres nationwide.

 On average, it takes about 45 gallons a year to water a square foot of grass in San Diego County.

 Outdoor water demand for inland homes is two or three times greater than for homes on the coast.

 Buffalo grass needs less than half the water required to maintain some other varieties, such as tall fescue.

 

Sources: Environmental Management journal; San Diego County Water Authority; Public Policy Institute of California; Water Conservation Garden.

 

Virtually all the bungalows in Jennie and Chas Rightmyer's Kensington neighborhood have well-tended lawns out front – part of the American dream, along with picket fences and two-car garages.

 

But increasingly dire warnings about statewide water shortages prompted the Rightmyers to remove their Bermuda grass. They are replacing it with a drought-tolerant garden that should be completed by month's end.

 

The couple hope the new landscaping will cut their overall water use by more than 20 percent.

 

“It just feels like the time has come,” Jennie Rightmyer said.

 

Californians should end their love affair with lawns, said water officials, lawmakers, conservationists and landscapers. Many of these advocates have promoted native plants for years, but they now sense a greater potential for change because of the public's growing concerns about global warming, drought and ever-rising water bills.

 

“It's the beginning of the end of lawn at home,” said Nan Sterman, who teaches a class called “Bye Bye Grass” at the Water Conservation Garden in El Cajon.

 

Last week, the garden's managers started a hotline for people to seek advice from Sterman about “water-smart” landscaping.

 

“It's not just the early adopters anymore,” Sterman said. “It's (average) people who are really getting the sense that we have to do something . . . which tells me that it's becoming part of the mainstream.”

 

Still, a large-scale shift away from lawns probably will take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars in California.

 

Government agencies would need to offer more – and perhaps bigger – rebates so residents can afford to redesign their yards. Some cities and many homeowners associations would have to permit fake turf or desert-friendly plants. And it may be a while before the public is convinced that native shrubs and ground covers can look as good as grass.

 

There is no official statewide count of lawns, making it difficult to measure change. By one estimate, residential lawns cover about 300,000 acres in California and suck up about 1.5 million acre-feet of water per year – equal to the amount used by 3 million typical homes.

 

The Metropolitan Water District, the main wholesaler to Southern California, is leading an effort to trim those numbers. It is crafting a $7 million program to pay customers to tear out their lawns starting later this year.

 

Residents and businesses could receive $1 per square foot to switch to preapproved, drought-resistant landscaping. The strategy could save enough water to supply 7,900 families a year.

 

San Diego County water agencies offer customers 50 cents or more per square foot to install synthetic turf, but water officials expect the recession will limit how many people opt to redo their landscaping.

 

It costs from about $2 per square foot to replace grass with drought-tolerant plants to more than $10 for synthetic turf.

State Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, recently introduced Assembly Bill 1061, which would enable residents to replace grass with water-sipping plants regardless of their homeowners association's rules.

 

“Having lush green lawns is inconsistent with the water crisis we're having,” Lieu said.

 

Metropolitan, a political heavyweight, backs Lieu's legislation because low-water landscaping could reduce homeowners associations' water use by 30 percent.

 

“It's not taking away all of the discretion (from associations), but it does allow the homeowner some choices,” said Stephen Arakawa, a Metropolitan official.

 

Keith Lewinger, general manager of the Fallbrook Public Utility District and a Metropolitan director, said he understands that association boards “need to keep up appearances.” But he would like residents to have more flexibility.

 

Lewinger was drawn to the issue by a homeowner whose association denied his request to install synthetic turf.

“It's not the Astroturf of the 1960s,” Lewinger said. “It looks like real grass.”

 

California residents will have an additional reason to trim water use in coming months: Many agencies are preparing higher rates, stiffer penalties and new restrictions to force conservation.

 

Despite the efforts to replace lawns, they won't disappear soon. Conservationists said turf has its place in community parks and ballfields.

 

Lawns retain a special appeal for parents, said Floyd Wirthlin Jr., co-owner of the Am-Sod Inc. grass farm in Escondido.

Wirthlin recently showcased new water-saving sod varieties at a garden show in Del Mar. He feared the worst, based on his experience during the state's last major drought in the early 1990s.

 

“It was like we were criminals,” he said.

 

But consumer interest in his sod ran high at the Del Mar event.

 

“People actually want their grass, but they . . . want to cut their water use,” Wirthlin said.

 

For people who can't afford to replace their grass or don't want to, lawn experts suggest watering fewer times each week but more deeply each time to develop stronger roots. They also said homeowners could reduce irrigation periods by a minute each week until the grass shows signs of stress.

 

While fixing irrigation leaks and adjusting watering times can be simple, persuading a lawn-centric society to embrace low-water landscaping is complex.

 

“The whole chain has to be there,” said Ellen Hanak, a water analyst for the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonprofit research group in San Francisco. “You have to have the plants available at the garden supply store. You have to have the irrigation equipment. Your landscaping professionals have to know what works in different climates and your household has to want it.”

 

The lawn's popularity in America dates to when Europeans colonized the New World and brought their love of manicured grass. Turf thrived in the East and Midwest, where rain and snow generally provide plenty of water.

 

“When people moved out to California, they brought the ethic with them,” said Julie Saare-Edmonds, a landscape expert for the state Department of Water Resources. “We just don't seem to be able to keep up with it anymore.”

 

That's partly because California's population has grown, and more residents have moved inland. Yards in those areas require two or three times as much water as those in the cooler coastal zones, according to the policy institute.

Las Vegas and Phoenix are the models for giving up lawns.

 

Since 1999, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has encouraged residents to pull up their grass in exchange for cash – currently $1.50 per square foot. The agency has invested $139 million in turf conversion, saving 7.2 billion gallons of water a year.

 

For new residential developments, the authority bans grass in the front yard and allows it for no more than half of a backyard. New commercial developments cannot have grass.

 

“You can make the change today on our nickel, or you can wait and do it on your dime,” said Pat Mulroy, the authority's general manager.

 

In Kensington, the Rightmyers plan to avoid the stereotypical Las Vegas landscape. Neighbor Tom Adam, a project manager for an architecture firm, helped the couple select vibrant low-water plants.

 

“It doesn't have to be a cactus,” Adam said.

 

He is now considering the future of his own lawn.

 

“We just can't keep going at the same rate of water use,” Adam said. #

 

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/09/1n9lawns22487-going-green-no-lawn/?zIndex=64012

 

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