Wildfires and Water Conservation

(Originally posted on waterefficiency.net)

By Elizabeth Cutright
Editor
Water Efficiency


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.