[Vision2020] Other topics-- was: Water. Where do you stand on theissue?

Tue Apr 25 15:23:21 PDT 2006

Tom, Nils,

The more I ponder this thread the more I wonder about when trophy lawns became important.  Do any of you on this site have any recollection of what yards looked like in Moscow in the 1950's, 60's etc.?   Water then had to be more expensive, has cheap water (like cheap gas pushing us into larger vehicles) been responsible for the near putting green perfection that many property owners strive for?  I would answer my own question with an absolute yes.  Which leads me down the rabbit trail a little further, instead of putting effort into shaming people into purchasing items they cannot afford (such as the toilets, washing machines, rain barrels) why not shift Moscow's attitude with regard to the need for a perfect yard?  Ball field? soccer field?    Why not promote the yard of the 1950's, green but not lush; functional but not high maintenance?   I have a strong feeling that if you could cut the use of perfectly good water for irrigation then Moscow's water crisis would come to an end.    

Unless the city has changed how they water the various ball fields since I have moved from the area I know they could cut back with irrigation at Gormley, and Mountain View Parks.  Heck, I remember standing in both of those fields in late July just a few years ago with water squishing on my flip flops and those pesky little bugs biting my feet wondering why in the heck do they water these fields like this.    My kids would finish a soccer or baseball game covered in mud because of all the water on the fields.   

I don't think anyone would have to tear their lawns out and put in a rock garden or let the yard go totally dead every summer, just cut back the use of water and chemicals to the point where like I said earlier, the grass is green but not growing.

Chris

________________________________

From: Tom Ivie [mailto:the_ivies3 at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 11:11 AM
To: Chris Storhok; vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Other topics-- was: Water. Where do you stand on theissue?

Thanks Chris.  I will try the zeolite.  I let me grass completely go dormant a couple of years ago and it caused some problems.  I am going to try leaving it a bit taller, I definitely have had to seed due to my not watering a couple of yrs ago and it really thinned out, and the zeolite.  

Chris Storhok <cstorhok at co.fairbanks.ak.us> wrote: 

Tom,

Assuming you have a yard the cheapest and easiest way to cut back water usage is to cut way back on watering the grass.  When I lived down there I cut back watering the grass to the point that the grass was barely green and it did not grow fast enough to mow.  If you do it right you will not have the dead brown yard look but you will not have to mow either.  I had found that during the hottest days of summer that really I had to water less than once a week and usually less than ¼ an inch total.  I seeded my yard each fall with various fescues including the Idaho fescue, Festuca idahoensis which is available at the UI (or at least used to be).  My seeding technique was simple, I just threw seed into my yard (or let the kids do) in early fall and left it alone.   My yard plan was based on my simple principles of:  I hate watering, I hate mowing, but I also hate dead yards (the kids really complained and besides a dry dead yard is one heck of a fire hazard).  The other yard trick I used was to broadcast zeolites around the yard.  You can obtain zeolite for around $20 for a 50 pound bag at most landscape businesses.   Zeolite helps your yard through absorbing water and ammonium into the mineral, grass will grow a fine root around the mineral and slowly draw out what it needs.  I am trying these same techniques up here in North Pole and will know later this year if my cheap attempts at saving water work.

Hope all is well,
Chris Storhok  

________________________________

From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.co m [mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com] On Behalf Of Tom Ivie
Sent: Tuesday, April 25, 2006 9:06 AM
To: vision2020 at moscow.com
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Other topics-- was: Water. Where do you stand on theissue?

In regards to the last issue "where do you stand":  I want to conserve.  But it costs me more to conserve than I can afford.  The cheapest rain barrel I can find is $100 plus shipping, I need at least 4 of them. I don't have the money to purchase a new front load washer and would have a hard time justifying it w ithout an old broken one.  I can't afford to put in a sprinkler system (I would love to have one).  Sure, I got a 3% increase in pay this year, but my groceries, gasoline, clothing, health care insurance, and basically all consumables have increased this year by more than 3%.  I pay twice as much for water as my counter parts in southern Idaho.  And I just found out I will have to pay out $4000 on braces for a child.  What do you do? Where do you start?  I have low flush toilets and a water saver shower head (you can get that shower head free from the city!).  What else can I do?  

Nils Peterson <nils_peterson at wsu.edu> wrote:

	Decker and Chasuk have opened related discussions on economic and population
	growth. Perhaps those are impossible to separate from the question of water,
	but I'd like to ask that someone else lead those discussions as new threads.

	We have several issues hanging out:
	* Marginal cost of new water resources
	* Fiscal impact of conservation on the City & water rates (fixed & marginal
	costs)
	* Water budget, paying for new uses of water by conserving on current uses
	* Pressurized irrigation
	* East Moscow water treatment plant
	* And where to you stand: must conserve, painless conservation, don't
	conserve

	Plus a wiki page to compile our information

	On 4/24/06 11:06 PM, "Matt Decker" wrote:

	> 
	> Nils,
	> 
	> I'm al! l ears. What would you suggest we do? Nils you said "Make changes in
	> current policy and procedure that aim to conserve the
	>> aquifer by changing personal and collective behaviors".
	> I would open too consideration, without the anti growth aspect of it all. If
	> we are going to continue to grow and have a future for our children here in
	> Moscow Idaho we need to figure out if A. We have a water issue. B. how to
	> solve is reasonably. C. do it so we can maintain who we are as Moscowanians.
	> 
	> There should allways be growth. To ignore this(not saying you or others are,
	> just stating) will be the day this town becomes haunted by ghosts.
	> 
	> matt

	Chasuk replied:
	On 4/24/06, Matt Decker wrote:

	> If we are going to continue to grow and have a future for our children here in
	> Moscow

	I hope that this isn't a naive question. It certainly isn't meant
	disingen! uously. But here it is: why is growth important? A town
	isn't a corporation, in a business sense, so we don't have
	shareholders to pay or a CEO. Therefore, what is the benefit of
	growth? For myself, Moscow is the perfect size; that's why I live
	here (amongst other reasons).

	I guess I am anti-growth, if growth means increased congestion and
	more crime and more anonymity.

	_____________________________________________________
	List services made available by First Step Internet, 
	serving the communities of the Palouse sinc e 1994. 
	http://www.fsr.net 
	mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
	¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

________________________________

Celebrate Earth Day everyday! Discover 10 things you can do to help slow climate change. Yahoo! Earth Day <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/earthday/*http:/earth.yahoo.com> 

________________________________

How low will we go? Check out Yahoo! Messenger's low PC-to-Phone call rates. <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/postman8/*http:/us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=39663/*http:/voice.yahoo.com> 

<http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/postman8/*http:/us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=39663/*http:/voice.yahoo.com> 
________________________________

Blab-away for as little as 1¢/min. Make <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/postman8/*http:/us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=39663/*http:/voice.yahoo.com> PC-to-Phone Calls <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/mail_us/taglines/postman2/*http:/us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=39663/*http:/voice.yahoo.com>  using Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20060425/60d00f5f/attachment-0001.htm