California-Friendly Landscaping Urged: More Beauty, Less Water

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published August 2, 2007 at 11:39 AM PDT

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Water officials say homeowners should reduce outdoor watering because of record-dry conditions in Southern California. One solution is to replace lawns with drought-resistant plants. A new law makes t

California-Friendly Landscaping Urged: More Beauty, Less Water

(Photo: One example of water-wise landscape that can be part of a shift to more native cactus and succulents suitable for the arid Mediterranean climate of our region. Water Conservation Garden at Cuyamaca College .)

Water officials say homeowners should reduce outdoor watering because of record-dry conditions in Southern California. One solution is to replace lawns with drought-resistant plants. A new law makes that easier for some homeowners, as KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce explains.

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Homeowners associations require condo or home owners to abide by certain rules. Some of those restrictions kept people from replacing their lawns with native plants. But Vickie Driver with the San Diego County Water Authority says a new California law has changed that.

Driver: The architectural guidelines of property owner's associations may not prohibit water conserving landscapes.

She says that means homeowners are free to replace water-greedy lawns with native plants that require less of the precious resource. Driver says more than 40 percent of the water in the county is used on lawns. Replacing lawns not only saves water, it also reduces monthly bills. Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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