In the past two years, nearly 2,000 Utahns have signed up to "Rip Your Strip," a program encouraging residents to save water by replacing parking strip grass with xeric landscaping.
But what if ripping out your grass is a little too militant for your tastes?
"We've realized that tearing out grass and putting in a xeric landscape is not practical for everyone, so we came up with another campaign, Smart Sprinkling," says Mark Danenhauer of the Utah Rivers Council, a nonprofit group that encourages water conservation in order to protect Utah's rivers from further development.
Studies have shown that homeowners with sprinkler systems overwater by 50 percent on average, according to the Central Utah Water Conservancy District.
"That is just a huge amount of water being wasted," Danenhauer says.
Teaching homeowners, business owners and municipal governments to properly use their sprinkling systems can save huge amounts of water each year, he said.
"We are giving them practical advice and tools on how to use sprinkler systems efficiently," he says.
The program provides a free online video with "simple advice" about how to use a sprinkler system, he says. For people who don't have access to high-speed Internet connections, the Utah Rivers Council will mail the video at no charge, along with a "smart sprinkling guide."
"We are hoping that all those people who aren't quite ready to get rid of their grass will be much more conscientious as they use their sprinkling system," he says. "By doing so we can save huge amounts of water and that water can be used to supply our growing population."
And water is not all that is saved, he said. As Utahns conserve existing developed water sources, it will reduce the need to spend millions on new dams and pipelines.
"Our state is growing and water is a precious commodity," he says. "By doing these techniques it will save people money, and it is a cheaper, easier source of water for our growing population. By making the water we have already developed go farther, we protect the free-flowing rivers in our state."
In order to keep water conservation on people's minds, the Utah Rivers Council had a float in Provo's Grand Parade on the Fourth of July for the first time this year, he says. The float featured an oversized hose and sprinkler squirting human-sized drops of water.
"The parade float is just another good way of getting the word out to people," he says. "People are aware of water conservation and people are going to see the float, and it gets our message out."
For information about the Smart Sprinkling program, visit www.utahrivers.org/smartsprinkling.