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WATER STEWARDSHIP AND THE LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONAL


“CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? WE’RE IN THE MIDDLE OF A DROUGHT, AND THE WATER COMMISSIONER DROWNS. ONLY IN L.A.”


T


hat quote, from the 1974 film “Chinatown,” perhaps best reflects the contradictions surrounding water management. The film famously starred Jack Nicholson and was inspired by the California Water Wars, a series of disputes over water at the beginning of the 20th centu- ry, by which Los Angeles interests secured water rights in the Owens Valley. (A fascinating story, the California Water Wars were among the subjects of “Cadillac Desert,” a 1984 book about land development and water policy in the western United States.) Today the public’s attitude toward water is a blended expectation of always being available with a touch of “let’s do the right thing and conserve,” but how does that affect landscape professionals? Californians are perhaps the first to answer that ques- tion as they’ve just come out of a three-year drought that has led to the state seeking to make permanent changes to retain water-saving practices in their everyday lives. The two graphics below comparing the status from six months ago through today demonstrate how rapidly our


water world changes. California Governor Jerry Brown wants to achieve this by retaining restrictions to curb water waste like hosing off sidewalks or watering within 48 hours after a mea- surable rainfall. But are these measures stopgap, or will they become part of a more sustainable future of water management? And will the public accept a new normal where water usage must be scrutinized as never before? Skeptics compare this to the change in purchasing habits when gas prices rise. (When they do, consumers tend to avoid SUVs and pickup trucks but seem to “forget” when gas prices drop. They go back to the gas-guzzlers.) For its part, the National Association of Landscape Pro- fessionals reminds us that it has a balanced—sustainable, if you will—policy of supporting “efforts to ensure an abundance of clean, unpolluted water to meet the needs of the world’s growing population, while also sustaining green, healthy landscapes with their many environmental, economic and quality-of-life benefits.” NALP strives “to promote effective and responsible landscape water use and to support the role of landscape professionals as stewards of water and the natural envi- ronment” through a variety of advocacy roles and educa-


22 THE LANDSCAPE PROFESSIONAL > JULY/AUGUST 2017


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