Utah to offer cash for replacing lush lawns with desert-tolerant landscapes

Officials in Scottsdale, Arizona, say for every square foot of grass removed and replaced with native desert plants, the city saves 57 gallons of water, location and date unpsecified | Photo courtesy Katy/Adobe Stock via Public News Service, St. George News

ST. GEORGE — Starting this week, the state is taking applications for a program to pay up to $1 dollar a square foot of turf to replace water-guzzling grass with drought-resistant landscaping.

For illustration purposes only, Enoch City Offices in the process of installing new landscaping to conserve water, Enoch City, Utah, July 12, 2022 | Photo by Alysha Lundgren, Cedar City News

Michael Sanchez, Public Information Officer with the state Division of Water Resources said cultivating a lush, green lawn in Utah’s bone-dry climate is a major water waster.

“We do live in a semi-arid state,” Sanchez said. “As you know, Utah has a different landscape than something like Kentucky, where you have things like bluegrass everywhere. It’s just matching our landscapes to where we actually live.”

According to data from the Division of Water Resources, Utah’s system of reservoirs ended the 2022 water year at just 36% capacity. Officials said while Utah had a better-than-average snowpack this past season, it wasn’t enough to keep up with the state’s growing demand for water.

The Utah Legislature approved a $5-million dollar expenditure to fund a statewide grass-removal rebate program. Participants will have a year to complete their landscaping project, which includes removing the old turf and replacing it with drought-resistant vegetation approved for their part of the state. Sanchez said swapping out the turf even in small areas can bring considerable savings.

“Just based on a quarter-acre lot,” Sanchez said, “the amount of water used on that lot is about 3,000 gallons with each watering. So just moving to something less water-intensive could be something that could save a lot of water.”

The state is starting this fall with a pilot program in Washington County, including residents in St. George, Washington, Santa Clara and Ivins, but it will be fully implemented next spring.

Similar turf-removal programs have been successful in neighboring states, where cities such as Scottsdale and Las Vegas have swapped millions of square feet of grass for water-efficient landscapes to save billions of gallons of water.

Written by MARK RICHARDSON, producer for Utah News Connection.

Read the original story here.

Copyright Public News Service, all rights reserved.

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