Campus Water Conservation

Campus Water Conservation

UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden staff continue to cut back on landscape water use, over and above the reductions mandated by the State of California and the University of California Office of the President. These articles provide further details about how our teams approach water resource conservation in our campus landscapes.

 

Image of members of the SmartLawn team installing turf at the UC Davis WCAE.

New Turf for SmartLawn Team

  • by Indigo Wang
The Learning by Leading™ SmartLawn team, together with CCUH, is helping aid drought and water conservation efforts by testing different types of turf and irrigation methods to determine which combination is most efficient for California homeowners. Their test plots can be seen around the Western Center for Agricultural Equipment. 
Image of two student interns from the Learning by Leading Waterway Stewardship team planting a wild grape cuttings to prevent erosion and create a wildlife habitat along the Arboretum Waterway.

Wild Grapes in the West-end

  • by Indigo Wang
Grape work! The barren banks on the west-end of the Arboretum Waterway are now home to wild grape cuttings, thanks to the Waterway Stewardship team.
2015 UC Davis Annual Sustainability Report

UC Davis Annual Sustainability Report released

Read the 2015 UC Davis Annual Sustainability Report about the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden's efforts to conserve water through our Learning by Leading internship program, updated landscape irrigations and new approaches to designing our campus landscape.

Weathering the drought: on campus and at home

Over the past year the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden has managed to cut back water use across campus by over 30% from 2013 — that is already well above Governor Brown’s recent 25% water reduction mandate. Read more about how we accomplished this using targeted tree care, irrigation improvements, lawn conversions and using regionally-appropriate plants!

H2Oaks? Campus trees get their own Camelbacks

  • by Katie Ferguson Hetrick
Teams from the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden’s grounds and landscape services team have started irrigating our younger trees with slow-release watering bags — a fancy description for those big green zippered sacks starting to appear at the base of young trees throughout campus.
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