There’s nothing like watching a water-dropping helicopter
attack a seemingly impenetrable wall of fire blazing up in your own backyard to
make you understand the power and fragility of water. Last week, drought
conditions conspired with high winds to create a wildfire monster that
threatened almost every corner of Santa Barbara—my and Water Efficiency’s
hometown. As always, fire season in California—which officially starts this
week—highlights the precarious situation many Southwest communities face:
sprawling development in mostly desert locales with few local water sources. As
ash fell in flurries and flames flashed in the foothills, water conservation
morphed from smart resource management to an essential survival tactic.
As the fire whipped
around the outskirts of the city’s center, officials called on residents to
curtail water usage and practice conservation. With five air tankers (including
the DC10) and 10 helicopters, it was easy to see that our local
reservoirs—already adversely affected by extreme weather and increased
demand—would be stretched to their limit. In fact, as local water utilities
calculated the fire’s potential
effects on water supplies, the call was put out for an immediate stop to all
non-essential water usage, including car-washing, laundry, and landscape
irrigation.
Of
course, in Santa
Barbara—as in many
southern Californian communities—homes sit
alongside wildland vegetation, and, as a result, irrigation and landscaping can
alternately save or condemn your home. According to scientists at the Center for
Fire Research and Outreach at UC Berkley, this wild-urban interface is where
“wildfires post the biggest risk to people and structures.” Water deprived
landscaping only ups the ante, and so smart irrigation techniques—including
drought-resistant vegetation and xeriscaping—not only save
water, but also can provide extra protection during wildfire season.
And for those of us in southern California, fire season is
starting to feel like a year-round phenomenon. In Santa Barbara alone, the
community has battled several large-scale blazes over the last three years,
including the summer-long Zaca fire, last year’s Gap fire, and the devastating
Tea fire that raged in our foothills just six months ago. For a great
blow-by-blow account of the Tea fire, see John Trotti’s November blog, “Southern California Fires”.
What about after the fire? Janice Kaspersen, editor of
Water Efficiency’s sister publication, Erosion Control, discusses
just that in her blog “Fire Season: Planning for What Comes
Next”. Janice includes a healthy list of some of Erosion Control's
wildfire-related articles, which provide a nice background if you’re interested
in learning about the relationship between water quality and soil erosion.
With
8,733 acres burned so far and an estimated cost of over $10 million, the
Jesusita Fire will be legendary, but thanks to the heroic efforts of
firefighters, complete devastation and annihilation was kept at bay.
With evacuation orders lifted and most of us back in our own
homes, the immediacy has faded, but I hope the lesson remains: Water
conservation must be practiced in times of crisis, but every day we must strive
to employ smart and efficient practices to conserve and protect our water
resources.