Facing a historic megadrought all across the American West with no end in sight, Colorado lawmakers are looking for easy and effective ways to conserve water through Kentucky Blue Grass.
Facing a historic megadrought all across the American West, Colorado lawmakers, looking for easy and effective ways to conserve water, set their sights on Kentucky Blue Grass.
Similar programs across the West have saved billions of gallons of water, paying property owners anywhere from a few dimes to a few dollars for every square foot of turf they replace. “For too long the Western Slope and the Eastern Plains have born the brunt of water conservation,” sponsoring state Rep. Dylan Roberts, D-Steamboat Springs, said during the February committee meeting.“The same old calculus doesn’t work anymore.”
But as time went on, climatologists and water experts began to understand that the Colorado River was over appropriated. Then in 2002, Berggren said, a megadrought started, made worse by climate change and explosive development. How much water grasses and plants might require depends heavily on geography and regional climate, Marshall said, but in Las Vegas a square foot of grass can consume 73 gallons of water every year. Replacing that grass with native plants and landscaping can cut that to 18 gallons or less.Photos before and after a property owner in Castle Rock took part in the city’s turf replacement program, which offers money to those willing to replace water-dependent lawns with more efficient landscapes.