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Jessica Schwartz
Irrigation Restrictions Coming As West Battles Historic Drought
California and much of the western U.S. are entering a period of historic drought that experts say will stretch tight water supplies, increase wildfire risk, and bring new water-use restrictions — particularly for outdoor landscape use — as the summer unfolds. Westlands Water District, which serves farms and rural communities on the west side of Fresno and Kings counties in CA, already announced a ban on outdoor landscape irrigation on May 26. Many other areas may soon follow suit. Drought Conditions Westlands’ move came in reaction to an announcement by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which allocates water supply to the Central Valley Project (CVP), that it would be cutting its supply to municipal and industrial entities from 55% to 25%. Though the initial CVP water supply had been announced in February, conditions have degraded since then, according to the Bureau, with the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Basin currently at its driest since 1977. Between the April 1 and May 1 forecasts, there was a 685,000 acre-feet reduction in the projected natural flow to the Sacramento, Feather, Yuba, and American rivers. According to The Mercury News, Sierra Nevada snowpack was just 59% of normal on April 1 — after the second dry winter in a row — and hot weather in May melted much of the snowpack significantly faster than was projected. “Due to the worsening drought conditions, inflow to our reservoirs was less than we expected,” Mary Lee Knecht, a Bureau spokeswoman told the newspaper. “Conditions are so dry, the ...
Irrigation Restrictions Coming As West Battles Historic Drought
California and much of the western U.S. are entering a period of historic drought that experts say will stretch tight water supplies, increase wildfire risk, and bring new water-use restrictions — particularly for outdoor landscape use — as the summer unfolds. Westlands Water District, which serves farms and rural communities on the west side of Fresno and Kings counties in CA, already announced a ban on outdoor landscape irrigation on May 26. Many other areas may soon follow suit. Drought Conditions Westlands’ move came in reaction to an announcement by the federal Bureau of Reclamation, which allocates water supply to the Central Valley Project (CVP), that it would be cutting its supply to municipal and industrial entities from 55% to 25%. Though the initial CVP water supply had been announced in February, conditions have degraded since then, according to the Bureau, with the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Basin currently at its driest since 1977. Between the April 1 and May 1 forecasts, there was a 685,000 acre-feet reduction in the projected natural flow to the Sacramento, Feather, Yuba, and American rivers. According to The Mercury News, Sierra Nevada snowpack was just 59% of normal on April 1 — after the second dry winter in a row — and hot weather in May melted much of the snowpack significantly faster than was projected. “Due to the worsening drought conditions, inflow to our reservoirs was less than we expected,” Mary Lee Knecht, a Bureau spokeswoman told the newspaper. “Conditions are so dry, the ...
Australian Research Finds Turf Helps Bushfire Management
Pre-pandemic, the unprecedented 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season, which ran from June 2019 to May 2020, dominated global headlines. Colloquially known as the “Black Summer,” it had a devastating effect on lives, homes, and precious ecosystem. Here in the U.S., we battled our own raging fires in Oregon and California this past summer. Now, the scarred land, without the benefit of soil stabilizing vegetation, is vulnerable to mudslides. Amongst the bad news, however, is an interesting bit of good news that speaks directly to the role landscaping can play in helping to manage wildfires. Recent research out of Australia commissioned by Hort Innovation for Turf Australia, the industry body of Australia’s turf production growers, found that living turf and green life can play active role in bushfire management. While the study focused on common Australian grasses, one can’t help but wonder if common U.S. grasses might yield similar results. Turf Ignition Studies The study found that samples of three common grasses in Australian lawns—buffalo, couch, and kikuyu—are all highly resistant to ignition by embers. Further, even dead turf under severe moisture stress proved difficult to ignite in ignition experiments conducted at the CSIRO’s Pyrotron facility in Canberra. The study saw repeated attempts to light the three species of grass under typical bushfire seasonal conditions. Various wind speeds were tested, as were different levels of leaf-blade moisture. After 221 ignition attempts in the Pyrotron facility only 14% of the samples were able to sustain ignition—and all occurred in dead grass with ...
Australian Research Finds Turf Helps Bushfire Management
Pre-pandemic, the unprecedented 2019-2020 Australian bushfire season, which ran from June 2019 to May 2020, dominated global headlines. Colloquially known as the “Black Summer,” it had a devastating effect on lives, homes, and precious ecosystem. Here in the U.S., we battled our own raging fires in Oregon and California this past summer. Now, the scarred land, without the benefit of soil stabilizing vegetation, is vulnerable to mudslides. Amongst the bad news, however, is an interesting bit of good news that speaks directly to the role landscaping can play in helping to manage wildfires. Recent research out of Australia commissioned by Hort Innovation for Turf Australia, the industry body of Australia’s turf production growers, found that living turf and green life can play active role in bushfire management. While the study focused on common Australian grasses, one can’t help but wonder if common U.S. grasses might yield similar results. Turf Ignition Studies The study found that samples of three common grasses in Australian lawns—buffalo, couch, and kikuyu—are all highly resistant to ignition by embers. Further, even dead turf under severe moisture stress proved difficult to ignite in ignition experiments conducted at the CSIRO’s Pyrotron facility in Canberra. The study saw repeated attempts to light the three species of grass under typical bushfire seasonal conditions. Various wind speeds were tested, as were different levels of leaf-blade moisture. After 221 ignition attempts in the Pyrotron facility only 14% of the samples were able to sustain ignition—and all occurred in dead grass with ...
