DENVER — Denver Parks and Recreation exceeded a citywide water conservation goal this season, reducing its water use by 34% — well above the 20% reduction Denver Water requested of the city.
More than 40 irrigation technicians implemented a drought response plan across the city's 330 parks. Denver Parks reduced potable water use by over 40%, saving 335 million gallons compared to its 5-year average.
Watch Jessica Porter's report in the video player below:
Denver Parks and Denver Water are partners of the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado, which is transforming the landscape industry with water-wise and native plants now thriving in locations like Congress Park.
Demian Wetzel, water conservation manager for Denver Parks and Recreation, said modernized infrastructure played a key role in the effort.
"Modernizing our irrigation infrastructure to what we call hydro zones to have a special type of sprinkler for a certain landscape, having irrigation zones just for trees, so we can protect them in a time of drought," Wetzel said. "We also have central control, which is a big interconnected irrigation system that's tied to weather stations. We can proactively program it to adjust with the weather and other climate factors like drought."
Wetzel said visionaries who worked at Denver Parks during droughts in 2002 and 2012 documented a drought response plan the department could tap into right away.
"The thing that was a big advantage for us was being proactive," Wetzel said. "So we kind of saw the writing on the wall this winter, as it just kept staying hot and dry, and we weren't getting any snow. We prepared ourselves."
Wetzel said some traditional bluegrass fields are brown because of reduced water use, but the grass will go dormant and grow back after a good snow season. He said converting more bluegrass to native landscapes will ultimately protect future water resources.
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