VIDEO – Slow the Flow: Make Your Landscape Act Like a Sponge
To view the 30-minute “Make Your Landscape Act Like a Sponge”, select the third item on the Playlist above.
Planning for Rain in California
“When much of California is facing drought and limited water supplies, capturing and reusing every drop of water will not only be clever, but crucial,” wrote Paula Luu, Communications Manager for the Pacific Institute, in an article posted on the 
Institute’s Blog.
“Water districts across the state have imposed mandatory and voluntary water restrictions to encourage water conservation and efficiency, but there have been fewer discussions around what and how we can prepare for the upcoming rainy season during the drought.”
Infiltrate Rain Where It Falls
The informative and entertaining film titled Slow the Flow: Make Your Landscape Act More Like a Sponge brings to life practices and projects that individuals and communities have created to steward our watersheds and slow the flow of storm water, one of the largest contributors of pollution into our waterways. The half hour high definition documentary features:
- a Sacramento landscaper who shocks his neighbors by pulling out his traditional front yard lawn and cement driveway, and putting in rain gardens, swales, native landscaping, and permeable paving;
- a suburban community that votes in a bond measure to pay for their school district to move to green multi-benefit watershed landscape practices and low impact development at all their schools; and
- a non-profit which is helping an urban neighborhood remove concrete and put in sidewalk gardens and median parks.
The projects and approaches highlighted are very low-tech, green, habitat-enhancing, and beautiful – making a good argument for kicking back and not raking the leaves or watering the lawn.
The film educates viewers on how storm water is created, and the associated problems. While the statistics peppered throughout the film are sobering, Slow The Flow offers solutions that any homeowner or municipality can put into place, and shows that individuals can make a difference.
To Learn More:
View all the Slow the Flow films on the Storm Water Films webpage or California State Water Board’s YouTube channel.