Florida Uses Xeriscaping Rules to Conserve Water

Here's another reason the Northern Hills Patriots and other Agenda 21 shouters need to dry up: "sustainability," the Bircher code word for United Nations Marxism, is really about simple things like not running out of water. A new article in Governing talks about how Florida, where the Republicans are all wet this week, has suffered serious drought and water shortages. A state we usually think of as lush and green thus became the first state to adopt xeriscaping requirements. No, that's not some globalist Marxist alien plot; it's just a rule that requires the use of landscaping techniques that use more rock, gravel, and less thirsty plants to save demand on public water resources:

However, this "water-rich" state that loves its lawns was the first to enact a statewide xeriscaping law, which requires its departments of Management Services and Transportation to use landscape designs that minimize water use on all new public properties and bars homeowner's associations from prohibiting yards with drought-tolerant plants. All local governments must also consider requiring the use of xeriscape and offering incentives to install xeriscaping.

In central Florida, Orlando rebates $300 in utility connection fees for new homes that meet water conservation standards for indoor fixtures and outdoor landscaping. North of Tampa, rural Hernando County has imposed an emergency 50 percent surcharge on high-volume water consumption. The county's landscaping ordinance now prohibits planting grass to cover more than half of any new home's yard, and, for now, Hernando County is keeping its once-a-week watering rule in effect [Tom Arrandale, "Droughts, Lawns, and Our Water Supply," Governing, August 27, 2012].

There's no conspiracy in Florida's xeriscaping ordinance, just attentive and forward-thinking public officials trying to protect a basic natural resource. Yet because xeriscaping is very clearly about sustainability, it is exactly the sort of sensible resource management that the Agenda 21 paranoiacs want the Whitewood City Council and governments across the country to condemn and ban. If we indulge the Bircher thirst for conspiracy theories, we'll end up thirsty for water.