Thursday November 20, 2014
The Student Voice of California State University, Fullerton
Volume 96 Issue 45
California running dry One of the worst droughts in California history lacks context with public and policymakers, professor says
FRANCISCO REYES Daily Titan Putting an issue as expansive as the current drought in California into context is no small task. Add uninformed policy makers, and a public that doesn’t grasp the severity of the issue, that task becomes even more difficult. Part of the difficulty of framing the current drought is the fact that it isn’t the first in California history, or even the worst, said Phoolendra Mishra, Ph.D., professor of civil and environmental engineering. There have been far more severe droughts that occurred well before climate change became an issue, he said. The cavalier outlook of most Californians in the face of the drought is a source of frustration, he said. “The general public doesn’t understand the severeness of this drought,” he said. “They think it’s okay–because we still drink water [they think] everything is fine. You see green lawns with the sprinklers running, and people are not seeing [the big picture].” There have been worse droughts in California’s past, he said, but it’s still important for the public to understand the severity of the drought and act accordingly in their everyday lives, and equally important that public officials take the same considerations into account during the policymaking process. Matthew Kirby, Ph.D., associate professor of geology, also aims to put the severity of the current drought into larger context. Kirby recently took the lead as author of a paper published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews. SEE CONTEXT
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2014 was the
driest year since
1924
and the hottest year on record
CALIFORNIA CSUF saves water with succulents in
CSUF spends about $250,000 to implement drought-tolerant landscaping on campus
KATHERINE PICAZO Daily Titan In face of one of the worst droughts in California’s history, Cal State Fullerton is replacing swaths of grass with drought-tolerant landscapes to meet the state mandate of reducing water use by 20 percent by 2020. About 60 percent of the university’s water use is for irrigation. Last year, the university consumed 111 million gallons of water at an estimated cost of about $360,000. Since the mid-’90s, the university has been pursuing water conservation efforts including the installation of low flow or waterless fixtures in some locations. Recently, the university expanded its efforts in drought-tolerant landscaping. Areas of grass by Langsdorf Hall, the Titan Student union and the Education Classroom Building have been uprooted and replaced with plants that
are less thirsty. The university has spent about $250,000 to date to replace grass with drought-tolerant landscapes, including the cost of drip irrigation, according to Facilities Operations. Some of the new plantings include Chitalpa pink dawn, Desert Museum palo verde, Mexican bird of paradise and feather grass, salvia leucantha, lantana, agave, dwarf bougainvillea and geraniums. “Succulents are the best choice for this kind of (drought-resistant landscaping) because you could water them infrequently, they will take it up efficiently, they will store it and will remain alive and green even if you don’t water them for months,” said Professor of Biological Science Jochen Schenk, Ph.D. Compared to drought-resistant plants used in what is called “xeriscaping,” lawns are extremely wasteful, Schenk said. However, Schenk said the university went with a very “half-hearted” statement on water-saving design by using some desert trees with roses
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MIKE TRUJILLO / DAILY TITAN
KATHERINE PICAZO / DAILY TITAN
Cal State Fullerton recently replaced several large lawns on campus with drought-tolerant plants featuring water-saving plants, like the succulent pictured above.
that are notorious for water wasting. “Our campus is really devoted to sustainability … so I think what would be a really good statement for our campus is to have a display of real xeriscaping out there with cacti, agave and desert trees and
make it beautiful,” Schenk said. Darren Sandquist, Ph.D., professor of biological science, said the university went with a plant palette that was somewhere in between not wasting a lot of water and still providing the beauty they wanted to
have. The new plant palette was selected based on color and drought-tolerance, said Greg Keil, Cal State Fullerton’s landscape manager. Drought-adapted plants have a high water-use efficiency, which means they grow
better than other plants for a given amount of water they use. But some of the plants chosen for the new gardens—geraniums, bougainvillea and carpet roses—will need to be watered much more frequently than the native plants, Sandquist said. “They are making a big effort to have better water conservation on campus,” he said. “One of the things they are doing are to create landscapes that recapture water, instead of letting it run off.” Bioswales, which collect runoff water, are something that could help retain the water and work to irrigate the plants by creating a reservoir of water in the soil, Sandquist said. Due to its scope, the recent expansion of drought-tolerant landscaping may bring more attention to the practice, but it is something that the university has been doing since the turn of the millenium, said Willem van der Pol, director of facilities operations. SEE PLANTS
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