In the News
Slow the Flow – Make Your Landscape Act More Like a Sponge
With the assistance of the UC Davis Land Use and Natural Resource Program, the Water Board Training Academy and the Storm Water Program have produced a film titled, “Slow the Flow: Make Your Landscape Act More Like a Sponge.” This informative and entertaining film brings to life practices and projects that individuals and communities have created to steward our watersheds and slow the flow of storm water, one of the largest contributors of pollution into our waterways.
The half hour high definition documentary features a Sacramento landscaper who shocks his neighbors by pulling out his traditional front yard lawn and cement driveway, and putting in rain gardens, swales, native landscaping, and permeable paving; a suburban community that votes in a bond measure to pay for their school district to move to green multi-benefit watershed landscape practices and low impact development at all their schools; and a non-profit which is helping an urban neighborhood remove concrete and put in sidewalk gardens and median parks. The projects and approaches highlighted are very low-tech, green, habitat-enhancing, and beautiful – making a good argument for kicking back and not raking the leaves or watering the lawn.
The film educates viewers on how storm water is created, and the associated problems. While the statistics peppered throughout the film are sobering, “Slow the Flow: Make Your Landscape Act More Like a Sponge” offers solutions that any homeowner or municipality can put into place, and shows that individuals can make a difference.