Balancing Water Restrictions and Water Prescriptions for Young Trees While Enhancing Water Conservation
Municipalities impose water restrictions during droughts and when water is in shortage. The most commonly restricted areas is landscape irrigation. While lawns can be restored within weeks, it take decades for trees to grow to their mature size, when the benefits of trees are at the maximum. Water restrictions disrupt the growth of the trees and the stresses during these water restrictions may have long-term impacts and prevent them from reach maturity.
There are many water prescriptions describing how much and ow often to water our trees. But how much do these trees actually need? How much is the prescribed water wasted? Are the recommended frequency compatible with water restrictions? Do you have to violate regulations and get penalized to keep your trees alive?
In this talk, we will discuss how much water trees need to survive and thrive, which may be surprisingly less than many water prescriptions. Then we will discuss what you can do to properly water your trees without violating the water restriction rules. A few things we did include: capturing rainwater when it is available, applying mulch to reduce water evaporation, avoiding water runoff, and focusing water delivery to the tree roots instead of weeds and lawn under the tree. In one Houston, TX case study: these methods reduced the total number of watering from Oct 2021 to March 2024 (2022 and 2023 were the driest two years in the previous decade) down to three. At the same time, soil moisture was monitored to ensure it was maintained at a proper level.
The main goal of this talk is to provide methods to keep trees alive and thrive during water restrictions and shortages without breaking water restriction rules or paying fines. It also enhances water conservation.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn the importance of trees to the quality of life in communities, the specific benefits, and the timeline it takes for tree canopies to provide these benefits
- Learn the differences in water prescriptions for trees, what that means to trees, especially newly planted trees before they are established.
- Learn from a few case studies across the United States on how to keep trees alive and to allow them thrive while not getting caught violating the water restriction policies.
Preapproved for 1 ISA CEU and 1 LACES PDH.
