Drought Worries Continue For Nation, Southwest

THE SEVERITY OF CURRENT DROUGHT CONDITIONS. According to a release by the Associated Press, the hardest-hit states are expected to be Arizona, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Georgia, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois and Indiana. Some states are recording rainfall averages between 1 and 2 feet below normal, and Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama have just experienced their driest February in 106 years, according to government officials. Reduced water supply has caused streamflows east of the Mississippi River to be well below normal for this time of the year, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

In addition to the immediate concern for the states above, an extended period of dry conditions is expected for the southwestern U.S. In fact, the Southwest could be moving into a decade or longer dry phase, according to Barbara Morehouse, director of the University of Arizona’s Climate Assessment Project for the Southwest. "We all should begin thinking seriously about the impacts of extended dry conditions, what viable alternatives exist for coping and what contingency plans we need," said Morehouse.

According to a Reuters news release, scientists are blaming the drought across the U.S. on the La Nina weather phenomenon, which cools sea surface temperatures, leading to lower rainfall in parts of the world, including North America. It appears that La Nina – the cousin of El Nino, which creates the opposite effect – is planning to stick around at least through the spring and possibly into the summer.

Scientists noted that drought conditions were also being caused by unusually warm weather, which hinders moisture from soaking into the ground, according to the Reuters release. The government recently said that the winter of 1999-2000 was the warmest in the U.S. since it began keeping records 105 years ago, marking the third year in a row that record warmth was recorded during the winter months.

"The news is not good," said Commerce Secretary William Daley, calling the drought outlook a "dangerous situation." He continued, "The drought of 1999 remains with us in the new century and our data indicate drought conditions are probably going to get worse before they get better."

Although Arkansas is expected to be one of the states hit hardest by the drought, Country Heritage Landscaping in Fayetteville, which is in the extreme northwest corner of the state, is not expecting any problems they haven’t seen over the past year. "I don’t see it affecting our volume of business. The only effect I see will be more people wanting irrigation systems," said Bob Holland, maintenance supervisor for the company.

Country Heritage, a landscape design, installation and maintenance business, has mostly high-end commercial clients that opt for irrigation installation. Because of these installations, Holland said that he hasn’t seen too many problems in the summer growing season when irrigation systems are running. However, in the fall, winter and spring, when irrigation systems must be turned off to prevent freezing, the problems of an extended drought period are noticeable.

"We plant a lot of pansies in the fall and usually turn the irrigation systems off around then. Last fall, we had to go around and turn these systems on and off, depending on the temperatures, because of the lack of rainfall," he said. When temperatures were warm enough, employees would turn the irrigation systems on; when it got too close to the freezing point, employees would turn them off. This situation required more planning, weather watching and time in the field. Last fall the company even had to hand-water newly planted plants. Without irrigation systems operating during colder temperatures, Holland said alternative watering was necessary. "If we don’t have regular rain, then plants die."

Some of Country Heritage’s maintenance accounts do not have irrigation systems, and some of their customers try to keep water usage and costs down while using the systems. In these cases, some extra care is required in installation specifications and plant selection. Holland explained that either of these cases could result in the customer choosing a smaller lawn, smaller garden area or fewer plant beds to reduce water usage. Plants located in exposed locations in a non-irrigated area, or one in which the customer is cutting water usage, must be able to endure sunlight and high temperatures. To meet those demands Holland said Country Heritage chooses annuals that can take a lot of heat, such as lantanas and petunias.

With northwest Arkansas being in a transition zone for warm-season and cool-season grasses, Holland also explained that drought conditions might trigger increased planting of warm-season grasses like bermudagrass and zoysiagrass. These grasses are tougher in the heat and sunlight. "I suppose customers can even have the option of not irrigating these grasses in the summer. It will cause browning, but the grass won’t die like the cool-season grasses," said Holland.

PREPARING IN TEXAS. So far this season the drought conditions aren’t overly affecting Austin, Texas-based TexaScapes either. But that’s because the company is trying to come up with ways to beat Mother Nature to the punch and stay ahead of the drought. Charles Rogers, vice president of operations for this design/build landscaping company, said the company’s biggest worry right now is what the city of Austin is going to do about water usage restrictions for the year. This decision could be made by the middle to end of April, so TexaScapes is doing earlier planting this year than they have ever done. With an average final freeze date of April 15, the company has taken a risk by starting its planting well over a month before that date.

If a freeze does occur, it is possible that several plants may die and need to be replaced. However, Rogers explained that the early planting risk could really pay off, especially if a freeze does not occur. "The key is to get the plants established early and get the root systems growing before the drier, hotter weather comes along," he said. The cooler weather, wetter conditions and lack of evaporation in early spring – not to mention the current lack of water restrictions – will help the plants get a foot hold in their beds and encourage growth before the summer drought.

Unlike TexaScapes, Dallas-based Precision Landscape Management Inc. is not planting earlier this year. Located about 200 miles north of Austin, early planting could subject plants to a greater risk of frost damage. The company is, however, watering more deeply, mulching more beds and advocating the use of more native plants. Company President Bruce Birdsong noted that the choice of native plants is not just a maintenance and installation decision. "We find that landscape architects are increasing their use of [native plants] on plans," he said.

TexaScapes also uses native Texas plants and plants from New Mexico and Arizona to combat the effects of drought conditions. Plants not accustomed to a dry climate have little chance of survival. Native Texas and desert plants are adapted for dry conditions, require less care and can handle the scorching heat of a typical Texas summer. The main characteristic of these plants is the prevalence of spring and fall flowers rather than summer blooms. Because TexaScapes tries to stick with native, drought-ready and low-maintenance plants, the company uses mostly perennials instead of annuals.

To promote root growth TexaScapes prepares flower beds with organic soil that helps hold moisture. "For five years now, we have steadily been using micoresidual fungus used as a plant stimulant that grows rapidly and becomes a host to help plants take up food and water," said Rogers. "Even if you’ve got water, it’s hard to keep plants alive."

Although Austin is located near several water sources, water use restrictions are definitely a possibility this year. San Marcus, Texas, a city to the south of Austin, is much stricter on water usage. According to Rogers, San Marcus has put an end to new irrigation system installations for the rest of the year, possibly affecting landscape businesses in that city.

Those types of restrictions have not affected Austin yet, but the threat of drought is changing the types of installations TexaScapes commonly performs. "We’ve been installing more underground and drip irrigation systems instead of spray systems," explained Rogers. These systems help soil retain water better, get the water directly to the roots and result in less direct evaporation than aboveground spray systems.

With the extended period of drought forecast for the Southwest, including Texas, Birdsong is predicting some problems. But Precision Landscape is prepared to fight it out. "We expect properties to experience some plant losses as rationing continues. We have the ability to ride this out, and then we’ll make replacements on properties in stages. These replacements will highly likely be natives and drought-tolerant species," he said.

TexaScapes typically does most of its hardscaping during the summer months because of the high heat. That way they have more time to get plants established in the spring. In fact, when customers inquire about hardscaping earlier in the season, the company will often try to move that to the summer. "We say, ‘If you’re willing to wait until summer, we’ll give you a break on the installation,’" explained Rogers.

For the past several years TexaScapes has looked at patterns in surrounding areas to try to stay on top of the current and predicted situations, and Rogers made his own prediction of a 10-year dry period in the Southwest. He explained that part of this drought preparation involves education for TexaScapes’ four licensed irrigators.

"Our goal is to send people to places that have already experienced drought conditions for two or more years. We have sent an irrigation technician to botanical gardens in Arizona to study their practices. We feed off the people already dealing with these problems to try to stay a couple years ahead of the situation," said Rogers.

The education doesn’t stop with the employees. TexaScapes sends out a monthly newsletter to past customers to educate them about proper care for their plants. The newsletter includes advice about handling the dry weather conditions, such as not turning irrigation systems completely off in the winter to allow root systems to continue to grow.

Precision Landscape is also educating its 220 commercial customers about the upcoming situation. Birdsong said, "We are warning customers about possible rationing and helping them budget for possible losses from drought." He also explained that local cities near Dallas were restricted to two or three days of watering per week last year – something the landscape maintenance and installation, irrigation, chemical application and tree care company’s customers will have to watch for.

WAITING IN MISSISSIPPI. As was the case for Country Heritage Landscaping in Arkansas, design/build company St. John and Associates is also seeing a rise in the number of irrigation installation requests. "We’re quoting more irrigation than we’ve ever had before," said Drew St. John, owner of the Hattiesburg, Miss.-based company.

St. John said his company normally gets calls for irrigation in May and June when the dry conditions usually start, but this year calls started before Christmas and have really picked up lately. The largest increase in installations has been from residential customers, who normally don’t go for irrigation.

With the prolonged dry conditions, St. John also mentioned that more of his commercial accounts are upgrading their irrigation systems. The upgraded systems have more sophisticated controls for water use, flow and management. The advanced controls make it easier for managing an irrigation schedule and help the clients keep their water costs down.

The increase in irrigation installations and the dry weather also alter the company’s maintenance schedule. This means adjusting crews to keep up with the demands of installations and scheduling plantings earlier in the season to beat the drier weather.

Another measure the company is taking to deal with the dry forecast is increased pruning. By cutting branches back, the plants require less water to stay healthy. But they also have to be able to retain that moisture to get the most use out of it. Therefore, the company is applying mulch thicker and more often. The company has also tried some additional items for water retention. "We have used wetting agents in some instances, but don’t expect to increase our usage," St. John explained.

St. John said that his area, which is about 60 miles north of the Gulf of Mexico, has never had water restrictions because the area has a shallow and plentiful water table. His area also usually gets the benefit of replenished water supplies from hurricane activity in the Gulf. However, during the past hurricane season, most of the activity missed that area of the country. About the potential of water reserves becoming depleted, St. John said, "We’ve adapted some design to that issue. We’re using more perennials than annuals, and that’s a function of the water."

DROUGHT WATCH. Last year, the eastern section of the U.S. was affected by drought conditions. Now the National Weather Service (NWS) climate forecast anticipates drier conditions in the southern U.S. "This year, for the first time, we are issuing a drought forecast," said NWS Director Jack Kelly.

USGS Director Charles Groat also predicts last summer’s drought to move westward this summer. Ongoing lower than normal streamflow and low groundwater levels may signal a return and worsening of last year’s drought, Groat warned. "This is the time of year where streamflow conditions should be about normal, but in the eastern half of the country, we’re anywhere but that," Groat said. "We should be seeing groundwater recharge taking place now and we’re not seeing that either."

The drought is moving west, Groat said, and is clearly already into the Appalachians and the Southeast. These are areas that did not receive a moisture recharge from the last year’s busy hurricane season, as the eastern seaboard did. USGS scientists are also seeing near record low streamflows in the Ohio Valley, the center of the Midwest, the Lower Mississippi River Basin and into the Southeast.

"Think of it as not having enough money to put into the bank," said Groat. "In some areas of the country, we don’t have enough water now to put into our groundwater bank. This is the time of year we are supposed to be recharging our savings – our groundwater and reservoirs. That hasn’t happened this winter, and so we don’t have the buffer we need when we start making withdrawals in the summer."

With several predictions pointing towards a dry season this summer, many homeowners will be keeping their eyes to the skies for some much-needed rain for their lawns and gardens. Even more landscapers will be learning and searching for ways to combat the common conditions associated with extended drought conditions.