U.S. Drought Monitor
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Smudgy clouds tumbled onto Colorado's Front Range and dumped four feet of snow on Denver and its surrounding area this past
March 17. The storm crippled the region for several days but gave landscape and lawn service operators reason to smile again
- if only cautiously.
The Green Industry there, suffering through the region's worst drought in 50 years, blessed the moisture and prayed that it
signaled the beginning of the end to a bewildering array of water restrictions stunting their operations. So far it hasn't.
"Mother Nature is finally starting to take very good care of us, but the water districts are still beating the @#%X! out of
us," says Eric Schultz of Schultz Industries, Golden, CO. That, in fact, was the message he recently delivered to members
of the Denver Water Board. The outdoor water use restrictions had already caused his firm to lay off 30 workers. The restrictions
were damaging the regional economy, affecting over one million residents. They limited outdoor watering to a maximum of eight
irrigation zones per property, 15 minutes per zone and just twice weekly.
10 profit-saving drought-response strategies
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Patchwork of regs Denver has the most clout in water use laws on the Front Range. But there are at least 50 other water authorities in the region,
and almost as many with different watering regulations. Property owner confusion over outdoor water use there is widespread.
The harm it has done to the Green Industry has been significant.
"We had people who lived across the street from each other, and one homeowner could water every day of the week and the other
could only water two days a week for two hours," says John Gibson of Swingle Tree & Lawn Care, Denver.
A wet and cool spring is helping the region recover, but authorities remain cautious about relaxing watering restrictions,
at least until the region's reservoirs are back to pre-drought levels.
"I was more concerned about the drought in January and February of this year than I am now," admits David Tollefson of the
Urban Farmer, Inc., Thornton, CO. He says that his firm's construction business took a 10% hit from the double whammy of drought
and stagnant economy, but maintenance operations picked up. "Now it's a matter of getting in front of customers and knocking
on doors," he says.
Tollefson and most other landscape and lawn service companies stepped up customer education efforts as the drought settled
in.
"We started seeing the drought restrictions come out in June last year, and we mailed out thousands of pieces to customers
and their neighbors telling them what to expect from the drought and how it would impact their services with us," says Gibson
at Swingle.
"We kept telling people not to abandon sound science when it comes to taking care of their landscapes," Gibson adds. "Maintaining
a property is a lot less expensive than resodding."
Companies coming out of the drought in the best shape have kept in close contact with clients and, in many cases, offered
additional or alternative service options. They've also stepped up client education.
"We've done a better job of promoting landscaping's value and lifestyle values, and it's paying off," adds Eric Schultz.
While many landscapers and lawn service companies there feel that they've turned the corner on the drought, they don't minimize
its economic impact.
Sharon Harris, the Executive Director of Greenco, a coalition of regional Green Industry associations, says a recent Colorado
State University survey pegged the loss to the region's growers and landscapers at $200 million from the end of 2001 to the
end of 2002. This is taking into account a slump in the region's technology sector, too. Even so, she says, "the water restrictions
that were put in place have had a huge impact."
