Water conservation key to environment strategy

By Lethbridge Herald on June 4, 2025.

Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald

The role of infrastructure and water-wise design in helping Lethbridge adapt to climate change was the focus of a special session of the  Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs on Tuesday, part of a two-day wellness event the LSCO is hosting.

Environment Lethbridge executive director Kathleen Sheppard and the organization’s urban watershed ambassador, Amber Murray, discussed  efforts to mitigate the impact of climate change through various methods on both a community-wide and individual scale.

The strategic priorities of Environment Lethbridge include waste reduction, climate action, green neighbourhoods and water conservation.

Key risks identified in the City’s climate adaptation strategy and action plan, the audience heard, include extreme heat and increased drought.

“Lethbridge, like every other community on the planet, is currently  facing the impacts of climate change and when it comes to those  impacts in Lethbridge, we’re looking at a couple of key climate risks  that will be increasing,” said Sheppard.

One of those risks is the city becoming hotter in summer and with that heat, Lethbridge will also get drier, meaning more droughts, Sheppard  said.

“How we respond as a community we need to look at ways we can conserve  water, in particular, not just today and for the summer, but for the long term,” which is how the Living Cities project of Environment Lethbridge comes into the picture, noted Sheppard.

Over the past 18 months, the City has completed two documents highlighting priorities, including the climate adaptation and action plan as well as a water conservation plan.

A living city utilizes green infrastructure, such as the use of natural vegetation, to replace or mimic grey infrastructure, which is things made out of rock and cement, said Sheppard.

When looking at green infrastructure, three criteria come into play including whether it’s available to everyone in the community, abundant and whether it’s thriving, Sheppard said.

It encompasses a range of projects including parkland such as the river valley but also urban forests. Sheppard noted all the city’s trees above the river bottom were planted, so “managing that urban forest and making sure it lasts into the future is a really important aspect of green  infrastructure.”

Ways to manage storm water without using concrete is also part of the concept through the use of permeable pavement, rain gardens and natural ponds.

Community gardens, green roofs and green walls are also strategies.

Community planting projects that have been undertaken are at Fleetwood Bawden School, Winston Churchill High School and Tartan Park.

Storm ponds such as found at Sunridge and Firelight ponds use natural vegetation to control water and provide natural habitat while floating islands have been created in ponds at parks such as Canyoncrest and Coulee Creek to help improve quality of water.

A project being undertaken through next spring is focused on supporting homeowners who want to improve outdoor water conservation in their own yards, said Murray. She pointed out it’s difficult to change over from Kentucky blue grass turf because if the root isn’t removed, the grass will grow back as soon as water hits.

Murray’s focus moving forward will be on offering education, support, facilitation and community outreach for those who want to build a  resilient lawn here.

Resiliency, said Murray, means not only using less water but being less reliant on it.

Murray noted if people plan a landscape that includes water-wise  plants and mulch, they will be almost impervious to drought.

Water-wise landscape design involves several factors, with the first being small, gradual change, said Murray. Ripping out a large portion of turf and putting in a new garden is heavy on water and soil amendments, not to mention the energy of the people doing the work.

“So it’s better to make a five-year plan if you’re doing a large landscape and build in tiers,” added Murray.

Turf is tricky, and ways exist to transform a Kentucky blue grass lawn which either involves a lot of work, or patience. or both, Murray said.

Only a couple of times a year can people change out a lawn: spring and late fall. It can’t be done in mid-summer because turf needs lower temperatures to germinate. But people can start on a patchy lawn by raking and constantly over-seeding with native varieties, including micro-clovers, Dutch clovers, wildflower ground cover and native fescues which will almost make a garden type of turf, Murray said.

The best water-wise design of turf is to use it as a pathway or a sitting area in the shade because it will require virtually no maintenance, she added.

Water capture is the future of backyard gardening with North America  being far behind Australia and Europe. That means using rain barrels  and turf hydration as well as hardy perennial hydration. Turf only  needs a half inch of water a week to stay green, Murray said. If  people want to keep lawns green, they should mow them high and put a frisbee under a sprinkler. When it fills up, that’s a half inch,  Murray said.

And people should never water in the sun, Murray added.