RIVERSIDE – (INT) – Plant experts are calling on homeowners to reconsider tearing out their lawns to save water.

UC Riverside environmental horticulturist Dennis Pittenger points out that a relatively small amount of California’s water goes into landscapes.

"Landscape water use in California accounts for only 9 percent of total statewide water use, Pittenger wrote in ‘PalmArbor’, an electronic journal for the green industry. “If we never watered another home or public landscape, park, sports field, or golf course in California, the state would save 9 percent of its total water consumption."

"Landscape plants and the water they use are under unrelenting attack," says Don Hodel, UC Cooperative Extension advisor in Los Angeles County. "But most of these attacks are misguided when one looks at the facts."

Governor Brown has called for the removal of 50 million square feet of turf in California to conserve water. Cities across state are now offering rebates to residents willing to pull out their plants and lawns.

Pittenger and Hodel assert that California cannot conserve its way out of drought by trying to wring out significant water savings from the 9 percent that keeps landscapes alive.

Instead of shutting off the sprinklers, they call for "judicious irrigation," providing just enough water to trees, plants and lawns to keep them alive. They believe judicious irrigation may be sufficient by itself to meet the 25 to 35 percent water reductions required by the state without changing the landscape to so-called "low-water use" or "drought-tolerant" plants.

Story Date: August 7, 2015