By Catherine Cuellar, KERA 90.1 Reporter
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-523836.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Catherine Cuellar, KERA 90.1 reporter: Texas Parks and Wildlife urban biologist John Davis works at Cedar Hill State Park among native trees and grass. He believes this type of vegetation can help solve the region's drought problems.
John Davis, Urban Biologist, Texas Parks and Wildlife: I think it should be mandatory that we use native plants. Let's say I plant little blue stem, a 2 to 3 foot tall prairie grass, it has roots that go down 7-10 feet. It's a native grass. It grows on no fertilizer, no pesticides, no anything. It helps with absorbing the groundwater into the water table, etc. Planting a native plant that's doing good things, at the very least not doing anything harmful to the environment, and I'm the one who gets cited for that.
Cuellar: That's because many landscape ordinances in north Texas outlaw grass over 12 inches tall. Because water is still fairly cheap, Davis says people aren't willing to change. But, he adds, the environment is taking a hit because common, legally-approved landscaping promotes gas-powered lawn mowing and relies on chemicals which taint the water supply.
Davis: The homeowner next to me may be putting down the herbicides and pesticides which we know go into my water and I'm having to pay to have that removed, and yet the ordinance is not citing him. To me that just doesn't make sense.
Cuellar: Part of Davis' job is to educate the public about conservation. The American Society of Landscape Architects is trying to do the same. Janna Tidwell is the society's DFW section chair.
Janna Tidwell, landscape architect: It's just become habit that we all like nice, neat, maintained green lawns with the perfectly manicured, trimmed hedges and I think we're really getting to the point where we're going to have to minimize the amount of lawn that we have in our landscapes.
Cuellar: That's what Flower Mound has done through conservation ordinances. Matthew Woods is the town's director of environmental services.
Matthew Woods, director of environmental services, Flower Mound: There's conservation of natural features within the town, land and open space, trees, in addition to water resources. Specifically in conservation developments, that land that would be conserved would be more left in its open space natural state, and therefore would not need artificial irrigation. You may have native established plants that are fairly drought tolerant, so you're conserving water in that aspect.
Cuellar: Woods says the town's laws don't just save water, they improve it.
Woods: Less infrastructure in the development means less potential runoff, a more pervious surface that would allow for the natural treatment and filtration of the rainwater or runoff from homes in the streets, so that's a direct benefit to water quality.
Cuellar: Flower Mound is also prepared to irrigate using effluent treated wastewater.
Ken Parr, Director of Public Works, Flower Mound: The water we discharge here is better quality water than the creek already has that we dump into.
Cuellar: Ken Parr is director of public works for Flower Mound, and he works at the town's water treatment facility.
Parr: It is as good as what you're pulling out of a lake, you can't use it to drink unless you run it through a water treatment plant, but it can be used for such purposes as landscaping.
Cuellar: The town produces 4 to 5 million gallons a day of reusable treated wastewater right now - and that will eventually be used to irrigate new athletic fields. Flower Mound's strategy is way ahead of other cities in North Texas. Still, the need is immense. Flower Mound uses 25 million gallons of water on a typical summer day, and 80% of that is for outdoor watering.
For KERA 90.1, I'm Catherine Cuellar.