And what are you doing to conserve water in St. Cloud???

[smallie_hawgin]

OK, I am a river rat, a biologist and a conservationist. I have a strong beef with the Cities that draw water from the Mississippi River. None of the local communities that use the Mississippi River have instituted any watering bans or any water conservation measures!!! The river is at a 20 year low! So exactly what does it take for people out there to realize that their front lawn is not as important as an incredible natural resource???? It is serious folks!!

I myself have most of my yard in native plants, not only do they do well in the drought, but when we do get rain in infiltrates rather than runs off. And I do not water at all!!

So what are you doing???

[bigb56303]

wel i use my well for all my watering needs outside, not only does it save on the river water but also the rediculas $ the city charges for water, to bad the rivers down, but ya know the "experts" are on the job

[uphill]

I can't believe there has not been a watering ban. I live ina neighbor hood that it seems like unless you are trying to sell your house we all let it go brown. I am lucky I had one of those blue pools and I had to take it down cause the wife started a daycare. So I had water in there from June and I slowly have been watering the bad spots but now I am out so back to brown it goes.

[smallie_hawgin]

It is good to see some folks actually give a rip about it.... Thanks guys. I put a letter to the editor inthe SCtimes too... MAybe that will draw out some other folks...

You ever think about why we cut grass, water lawns (not myself) etc.... It seems as though we water to make the grass grow (Kentucky bluegrass or several of the fescues are not a native btw) then we cut it more often... taking valuable time away from fishing and hunting....then for the fanatics out there, they bag it and put it on the city dump???? Then because they bag it they have to fertilize!!!

What theck is wrong with our society that allows us to make more work for ourselves, degrade the landscape use more water than we need, and cause the landfills to have more material in them....

I wonder who of our forefathers had this hairbrained idea????

[Sartell Angler]

I agree with what you are saying--if you live in town, you are pretty much forced to conform to what your neighbors do.

That is why I want to live out in the country a little ways and have the option of leaving my yard go dormant if the weather demands it--it doesn't look that bad unless it is surrounded on all sides by plush green lawns!

[lumbertick]

S/A....you never have to conform....it's that type of mindset that contributes to the problem....be your own person...do what you know is right....

I too live in the fair city of Sartell...which has a water conservation plan in effect at all times.....however...it is rarely if ever enforced. I walk my dog in neighborhoods that have moss growing in the gutters from overwatering.

To answer the question of what I am doing to conserve h20...I have never watered my lawn (ok, I did when I first planted it) this fall a good portion of the lawn that no longer is being used by kids playing is turning back into prairie grass....the plan is that over 60% of the lawn will be native...but for now the kids have to have space to play too.

I think it was Harmon Kilabrew who tells the story of getting bugged about his awful lawn because he let the kids play on it all the time...his answer was that he wasn't raising "lawn", he was raising kids. The moral of the story is that there is so many things more important than a green lawn....including hunting and fishing!!!

lt

[Ralph Wiggum]

Lumbertick,

Just because people are watering doesn't mean that they aren't enforcing the ban. My folks live in Sartell and I remember I was home a few years ago and a cop stopped by to make my dad shut off the sprinkler. They have all the outside faucets hooked up to our well, though, so it was perfectly legal. It all depends where you live. A lot of the outer area of the city that have been annexed in the last 10 or so years still have wells.

[lumbertick]

Ralph...I am well aware of the "wells" (pun intended)....I can with 100% certainty say these folks have no wells....either way I believe the "green" lawn syndrome is out of hand...and not good for the "waters and wetlands" of this state.

lt

[Ralph Wiggum]

Fair enough. Just wanted to point it out for those who may not know. I'm guessing it is some of the "bigger" houses in town. One thing about Sartell, if you've got money, you've got power

[Captain B.R.K]

I just moved into my first home in Sartell and had been watering every other day for 1-2 hours when I first got my sod. That was back in mid June and since have scaled back my watering. However, I have new sod and it is important for me to have my grass stay alive and look green so I kept watering it.

I can say the City of Sartell has been driving through our neighborhood pretty regularly to monitor the odd-even watering restrictions that are in place.

I have always lived in a city and having a nice yard, landscape and house look good is important to me. I find it fun owning a house and doing yardwork makes it that more fun to me. Don't get me wrong, I would rather spend time on the water or in the woods. But doing house stuff is just as fun too. Maybe I'm dillusional from "the new house syndrom" But to each is own on how they want to deal with their yards and I'm non bias to the whole yard subject.

[smallie_hawgin]

Agreed Captain.... I just put the resources, water, land etc. on a higher level than personal home looks.... That's my beef. I like messing with my yard too. I have placed a stream (which is actually dry), and many native plants and trees to make as little mowing as possible.

To each his/her own... I just want to be sure our vanity doesn't come at the expense or detriment of the environment and/or fisheries resource.

[uphill]

SH do you happen to live on Cooper Ave? I see you took some time off from fishing Saturday to go look at the Cup. Just to let you know I one of the guys you ran into at the landing Friday before the tourney. Anyways there is a house on cooper that has what looks to be native or wild flowers and such at first I kind os questioned it but after no precip this year I would love to do it myself but I would probably have to get permission from the from the association I live in.

[Captain B.R.K]

SH- Good point....no need for us to get yard crazying at the expense of our resources. Hopefully the worse is behind us and we can get some rain and normally temps back to the area.

[smallie_hawgin]

Quote:

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SH do you happen to live on Cooper Ave? I see you took some time off from fishing Saturday to go look at the Cup. Just to let you know I one of the guys you ran into at the landing Friday before the tourney. Anyways there is a house on cooper that has what looks to be native or wild flowers and such at first I kind os questioned it but after no precip this year I would love to do it myself but I would probably have to get permission from the from the association I live in.

---

Yup I took a break from fishing to get a photo with Lord Stanley.. pretty cool deal....

I actually don't live on cooper... north and east a bit off traverse... I have quite a bit more natives than the house your talking about... I would encourage you to break the mold.... It is so cool to not have to water or cut a bunch of grass. I have my lawn cutting time down to less than 30 mins.... Awesome!!! used to be about an hour. Shoot me an email (in profile) if you have any questions, I would be glad to help you get some plants or point in the right direction for seed...

[lumbertick]

SH,

I have a bunch of questions for you on your natives....can I e-mail ya.

lt

[smallie_hawgin]

I'll do the best I can to answer ?s There are obviously a bunch more folks that have had experience with prairie restoration and species selections... I can at least offer my experiences anyway...