Readers React: To water your lawn or not to water, that is the question

To the editor: Dried-out yards in California (especially Southern California) are not a virtue, but neither are green lawns or tropical plants. (“Dried-out yards are not a virtue,” Opinion, Sept. 18)

Appropriate landscape management includes limiting traditional lawns to a small portion of residential lots, planting foliage native to whatever habitat is being managed and planting parkway areas with native grasses. Parks and athletic fields are worth the water expenditure to keep them green.

It does not include artificial lawns, which should be banned because of the resources used to produce them, their effects on air and soil temperature, and the fact that they provide no sustenance for insects, birds and animals.

Although residential landscape water use may account for only a small percentage of the state’s total water use, as the drought continues and the population grows, every drop will count even more.

What will we do when the taps run dry?

Daniel Fink, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: Kudos to Donald R. Hodel and Dennis R. Pittenger for their insightful article.

They amply pointed out the need to adequately water the urban landscape.

Anyone who has taken a biology class knows that in a terrestrial ecosystem there are producers — green plants — that support the consumers — animals. We can’t have a stable community if we don’t maintain the producers.

Well-maintained trees are vital to the urban landscape.

Don’t let your trees die from lack of water. It will take many years of new growth to replace what you have now.

Jack Hoskins, Yorba Linda

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To the editor: At last someone speaks out against the war on residential landscapes.

Clearly we are being herded by edict (not law) and elitist central planners to kill grass to save water. But what is the real motive?

Here in Irvine, I think it is to enable redevelopment of spaces without regard to congestion on roads and in stores, schools, parks, ad infinitum.

We must save today so we can have even more users tomorrow, having redefined the American dream to mean apartment living with no place for the kids to play, long lines at the nearest red light and reliance on public transportation.

Saving water should be an egalitarian effort.

But while they are at it, perhaps those who live without yards (not the developers who profit from them) would expound on the virtues of the lifestyle being forced on us by central planners.

Fritz Mehrtens, Irvine

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To the editor: Most of the piece is based on the erroneous assumption that water is available to maintain the L.A. basin as an evergreen oasis in what is fundamentally a desert.

The litany of obvious benefits from plentiful water is irrelevant. SoCal greed for water has dried up Owens Lake and almost dried up Mono Lake, and that was during the wet years.

Where do the authors think the water is going to come from?

Moreover, the extreme picture of brown countryside is overstated.

Most homeowners have achieved their water savings by cutting back on watering turf while keeping trees and shrubs alive.

David Paquette, Cerritos

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To the editor: Hooray for the opinion piece; finally my thoughts have been clearly expressed.

There must be a better and fairer solution to managing our water supply; all my neighbors have larger households than mine (only two people), so I can almost guarantee my water usage is lower, even taking into account the landscape watering.

Why punish our friends — the trees, shrubs and flowers?

Vivian Woo, Pasadena

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To the editor: Since the drought started I have had a sign in my front yard essentially bragging about my community spirit because I let my lawn die.

Now your experts tell me I couldn’t be more wrong.

I don’t really care about the lawn, but if they are right, I am infuriated by the dangerous incompetence of our state and county governments.

Is there any chance that anyone will be held accountable for what seems like a horrendous error in judgment, or do we just let it slide?

Bart Braverman, Los Angeles

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To the editor: Thanks for the article on dried-out yards. When politicians start crying “emergency” to their constituents, it’s almost always about something else. It seems it’s always easier to bully the public than to tell them the truth and ask for cooperation.

Jeanne Mount, Beverly Hills

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To the editor: On the Westside, we have a real problem with tree removal, due to greed and mansionization. Greedy developers remove trees and landscaping, replacing them with a much smaller green footprint.

It’s a terrible situation.

Mindy Taylor-Ross, Venice