I'm considering a drought resistant front yard. Getting really annoyed at the water being wasted on the grass lawn. However, does a typical desert like landscape(which of course saves water and does not grow much) consume as much CO2 as a grass lawn(which requires it for both constant growth and normal baseline respiration, yet of course requires more water)
I could be wrong, but I think you have to look at root depth to determine this. I converted a fourth of my lawn to native plantings and I've read that in fact these plantings will sequester more carbon than would my prior traditional lawn - and even more so than would a forested area of the same size. Don't hate if I'm wrong. Hopefully more will weigh in to attest to the accuracy of this.
For drought resistance, thick mulch and some big plants for shade should help. I'm guessing on the CO2 part, but I would think the more leaves and root growth, the better. What might make an even bigger difference is adding some food crops.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(hyo silver @ Sep 27 2007, 12:22 PM) [snapback]518546[/snapback]</div> This is an excellent point for offsetting one's co2. This may actually make the most sense out of all options available. Could it be that Burritos has a green thumb? I planted a lot of native species that will provide us (and wildlife) with fruit and nuts. Since I really wanted a prairie, I have no room for vegetables.
Root turnover appears to be the CO2 remover, there is a Duke study that details this more. It turns out that previous assumptions of CO2 removal may have been greatly exaggerated. I don't think mulch is a good idea, since the decay of the material would produce methane, a GHG 10 times as potent as CO2.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Devil's Advocate @ Sep 27 2007, 12:33 PM) [snapback]518586[/snapback]</div> It's more like 23 times! Fortunately, it's residence time in the atmosphere is considerably shorter (it's a less stable molecule).
Maybe you could do a little rainwater harvesting with your landscape changes. This would allow you a wider variety of native plant species to choose from as well as fruit trees if you desired. This is a great site on the basic (and not so basic) ideas of rainwater harvesting. I have a great Bioneers workshop presentation in audio format if you're interested. It wouldn't take long to upload to a server. It details the work done in a small neihborhood in Tuscan. The upshot is: They improved stormwater runoff Increased annual precipitation from 12% to 33%? on their property Drastically reduced use of municiple water (potable water) use on landscape They have enough water to grow a wide variety of plants/trees for food and shade Increase habitat for native species (especially ones that contribute ecological services like pollenating. There are a ton of other benefits but they went a lil on the extreme side. It was great.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Sep 27 2007, 09:30 PM) [snapback]518808[/snapback]</div> I glanced at their website and didn't see the answer, but how do they increase percipitation by 12-33% on or off their property. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(F8L @ Sep 27 2007, 09:30 PM) [snapback]518808[/snapback]</div> I glanced at their website and didn't see the answer, but how do they increase percipitation by 12-33% on or off their property.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(RonH @ Sep 27 2007, 07:45 PM) [snapback]518821[/snapback]</div> Tucson or his particular areas recieves about 12" of precip. (I accidently used % instead of inches in the previous post). Because the landscape actually covered by earth, plants, trees etc only sees this 12" of precipitation, or an similar amount, the only way to support more lush growth is to add more water. The house and driveway occupy land area but the water normally runs off into rain gutter son the roof and is channeled into "runs" and off to the street where it is wisked away and increase the chance of flooding in large storms and essentially wastes usuable water. By rain harvesting you can channel that water into the ground, cistern, tanks, or surrounding landscape. So the rainfall that normally lands on square footage that is taken up by the house/driveway can now be used for the landscaping, houshold use where potable water is not required (toilets, laundry, car washing etc.) This would in increase your "effective" annual precipitation for that piece of land. The other way they do this is through channeling wastewater, or graywater, into the same systems. If the proper soaps are used when bathing or doing dishes, you gain an added benefit of fertilization. If enough places did this you could help to recharge aquifers and sequester water and prevent the drying out of a landscape due to improper channeling of excess water during storms. We use these techniques in Northern California on large scales and to great effect. Tell ya what. Check back in about 10min and I'll have the mp3 file uploaded and ready for you to download. This way you can here it straight from the plenary instead of my reiteration.
Here is the file. It is 35.8MB so I suggest clicking Save-as. This will help you navigate the video to get through the first guy who, while eloquent, doesn't really say much. Watershed Literacy
Interesting stuff, F8L. Thanks for the links. One minor thing about this is that it's basically illegal in many western states (it is here in CO) because of the way most western water law works. Now, mind you, I don't think anyone would really pursue it, but it's essentially an illegal appropriation. There are many arguments against that philosophy, but I don't know that anyone's really challenged it yet. Have you studied any water law? I took a course in grad school, but that was a while ago. 1.) things may have changed some and 2.) I'm hardly a fount of knowledge on the subject.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Sep 27 2007, 08:51 PM) [snapback]518856[/snapback]</div> Not sure about the law aspect Tripp. I need to get aquainted with it though. Hehehe In the workship (the audio clip) the guy mentioned they had city approval due to the beneficial effects of stormwater reduction. I work with the Roseville Environmental Untilities Division here in Norcal so I'll ask around and see what I can find out. *edit* A quick search is coming up with many hits for tax credits as incentives for rainwater harvesting and catchment basins here in California. I thought I saw some for OR. and WA. also. I'm watching a BBC video on Time though so I'm not putting forth much effort. lol
Very neat, F8L. The concepts are not new to me, but the degree to which they can be effective are. For instance, I had heard of greywater recycling, but had no idea that you can redirect this water through variously located exit pipes to more widely saturate your landscape. Unfortunately, I couldn't see any of the video. I could only get audio or maybe I would've been able to gather other useful information. I googled the cohousing website and one thing is clear. People don't have to sacrifice aesthetics by implementing these solutions in order to benefit our environment. The community is beautiful and lush looking. I wasn't able to ascertain who funded all of this. I'm curious of this as there don't seem to be many offsetting cost benefits for the homeowners. And it seems that resale value of these environmental upgrades may not be recognized if they indeed paid for these upgrades. Did the community end up footing the bill or where there municipal incentives? In my mind, the tools they've implemented should be funded by municipalities - even federal level funding. Billions of dollars are spent mitigating unwise development on erosion, water control/flooding, water purification, etc. These solutions are probably significantly cheaper than our the effects of our conventional development practices. It's becomes more progressively clear to me that we have the knowledge to stop reacting to the ills of our developmental ways. I hope this becomes more and more of a trend. I'm traveling to Tucson in next month. I would very much like to tour this area and the website states that they have guided tours. We only have three full days to hike/camp, but maybe we can fit this in before our flight on the last day. We were thinking of filling this time with a visit to the Biosphere, but this would be a much more worthy visit.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tripp @ Sep 27 2007, 11:51 PM) [snapback]518856[/snapback]</div> On commercial projects in CA and NV the only issues I've run into are where we are collecting a large percentage of the site's rainwater and redirecting it the municipal sewer system by using it to flush toilets. If you use collected rainwater for landscape, then the annual aquifer charging is unchanged and we've never had a problem. However, there could be localized legal issues. Maybe if you're technically in the watershed of a nearby creek with seasonal needs, near a 'wetland' of any sort, or something.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(burritos @ Sep 27 2007, 08:59 AM) [snapback]518488[/snapback]</div> I'm all for not wasting water on lawns, but have you also considered not eating meat as a way to conserve water? Every bit helps and as I'm sure you can google to confirm, raising livestock as we typically do, consumes way too much water to be sustainable.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SSimon @ Sep 29 2007, 09:27 AM) [snapback]519049[/snapback]</div> I'm glad you liked it. Unfortunately it is only an audio clip. The slide show would have helped understand the projects better. I think the project was mostly funded out of pocket but this level of landscape alteration would mainly take place during a complete relandscaping project. That means you would be spending a bunch of money to tear up your yard anyway so adding some of these items would not add much more to the bill if planned correctly. It seems there are incentive programs as well in some western states. I agree with you that we have the technological know-how to reduce our environmental impact in a big way AND have it translate into safer and healthier communities. There are obviously economic benefits as well. The problem is getting people to understand these connections and pushing the legislature to make it happen.
