It’s time to watch the weather, wait to water

As the summer rains return over most of our region, it’s likely Mother Nature will handle watering the lawn for you, leaving you free to turn off your sprinklers.

Now if we could only get Mother Nature to take care of cutting the grass, too!

Watch the Weather, Wait to Water is the summertime theme of the St. Johns River Water Management District’s water conservation campaign, Water Less.

It’s such a simple concept, but one we may overlook while preoccupied with today’s other pressing concerns. We launched our campaign to promote simple ways you can easily integrate outdoor water conservation at your home or business.

Although our annual water use surveys during the last few years have indicated some positive trends — thanks to water conservation and the increasing use of reclaimed water — lawn and landscape irrigation continue to account for half of all daily residential water use. (The districtwide survey results for 2019 will be released later this month.)

Besides impacting our precious water supplies, overwatering lawns can promote weeds, insect pests and weakened grass roots. We have all seen broken or misdirected sprinkler heads spraying water onto sidewalks and pavement (check your equipment regularly) or an irrigation system running full blast despite a recent downpour. Watch the Weather, Wait to Water!

Water conservation is a daily focus for us, with water supply one of our four core missions. If you missed our “Deeper Dive into the District’s Core Missions” series of free webinars, we invite you to catch up at www.sjrwmd.com/education. I was excited to kick off the series with an overview of our water supply core mission on June 4.

We hope that with the easy steps outlined as part of our Water Less campaign, water conservation will become a part of your daily routine. Utilities, homeowners’ associations, local governments and municipalities, as well as each of you, play an incredibly important role in this.

We’re grateful to all those helping to raise awareness of the small behavior changes that can lead to big improvements and help us protect our water resources now and in the future.

Visit our website: WaterLessFlorida.com.