PRINCIPLES OF EFFICIENT LANDSCAPE WATER MANAGEMENT

Editor’s Note: Te following is an excerpt from Appendix B of the booklet, Water Right—Conserving Our Water, Preserving Our Environment published ten years ago. Te information is every bit as important today as it was then and should assist you in any conversations that you might have about water and its relationship to turfgrass and the environment. Te Water Conservation Checklist on the next page is from the same booklet. Please feel free to make copies to use as you see fit.

Turfgrass Producers International (TPI) is a major partner of the green industry and is also dedicated to environmental concerns. Tey recognize both the global need to use water efficiently and the benefits of public and private green spaces. Trough research, education and proper management, they believe that based on the following landscape water management principles 21st century landscapes can be increasingly water-efficient and meet the needs of the public and the environment alike.

• Turfgrass is one of many important components of the landscape, providing numerous benefits and values to our quality of life, our environment and our eco-system.

• The green industry in general and the turf industry in particular, play significant environmental and economic roles on the local and global levels.

• There is no universal answer to all landscape water- management issues. Solutions need to be based on site-specific determinants, incorporating both initial establishment and continuous, long-term considerations.

• Efforts to develop and implement any narrowly focused water-conservation solutions can prove problematic.

• Efficient use of water can be realized only through implementation of the combined best-management practices of the soil, plant, irrigation, landscape- maintenance and landscape-design sciences.

• Actual water requirements of all landscape materials must be determined by means of objective and verifiable scientific processes, which in turn enable educated and environmentally sound landscape decisions.

• Technological synergies, evolving from green-industry professionals and scientists will continue to expand and improve water-resource development, delivery, use and efficiency.

• The public will take actions that simultaneously conserve water and improve the environment when properly informed of and motivated by the best available scientific knowledge and technology.

• The basic right of individual artistic expression in the landscape and the value of a given plant is not solely determined by its need for and/or consumption of water.

• Public policy should encourage the quality of life, the freedom of choice, and the emotional and economic values resulting from individually owned and public landscapes.

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TPI Turf News January/February 2017