Water-saving turf removal program, Beyond Lawn, enormously successful in first year
Eagle County landowners value personalized yard evaluations as program replaces over 25,000 square feet of turf
Eagle River Coalition/Courtesy photo
Beyond Lawn, the program created in a partnership between the Eagle River Coalition, the Eagle County Conservation District and Colorado State University Extension Eagle County to save water by redefining vegetation on Eagle County’s privately held land, had a banner first year.
“Within our grant, we said that over the course of three years, we would do 60 evaluations on properties. In the first year, we’ve done 67. So we’ve far exceeded what our expectations were,” said Allegra Waterman-Snow, a district technician with the Eagle County Conservation District. “We now know, I think, the scale at which people care. And that’s really powerful. I think that’s a huge success.”
Why replace turf?
The premise of Beyond Lawn is simple: Replace water-sucking turf grass and faulty irrigation systems with landscaping that matches the native vegetation in Eagle County.
“We are in a water crisis in the Colorado River Basin. We’re not getting more water, and it’s not because we’re getting less precipitation, necessarily. It’s because it’s getting warmer,” said Rose Sandell, an education and outreach coordinator with the Eagle River Coalition.
Watering lawns less can mean more water in the rivers, which can help keep water temperatures cooler, support fish habitat, allow more water downstream to agriculture users, and support soil health.
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“Turf is a monoculture,” Waterman-Snow said. “It’s introduced. It’s not native here. And a monoculture of any type doesn’t support diversity. It doesn’t support pollinator diversity. It doesn’t support wildlife diversity.”
Turf grass also has short roots compared to native plants. “Having a deeper root system helps with water holding capacity, helps with erosion, helps with weather events, flooding,” Waterman-Snow said. “So just creating a more balanced ecosystem overall is going to help protect us against wildfire. It’s going to protect us against flooding events.”
The goal of the program is not to replace all of Eagle County’s grassy areas.
“People use turf for various things. Essential turf is fine. If you are using it, if it’s beneficial to your kids, your dog, you, keep it,” Waterman-Snow said.
But replacing even small areas of turf can make a difference. “I think most homes here that have turf, there’s some aspect of that turf that can be replaced,” Waterman-Snow said.
How does Beyond Lawn work?
The Beyond Lawn program has three parts: education, evaluations and rebates.
Education, which is available to all Eagle County residents, includes demonstration gardens, rain barrel workshops and DIY landscape conversion classes, all led by the Eagle River Coalition. “The people attending those are so excited. They come ready with their pens and their paper and their laptops, and they’re just ready to learn,” Sandell said.
The rebates, which come in two forms, are funded through two sources — the Colorado Water Conservation District and the Colorado River District. Both types require an evaluation beforehand.
“We want to make sure people know that there were options, and that may not always be the most water-efficient option,” Waterman-Snow said. “Maybe it’s actually converting your spray heads to high-efficiency spray heads. Maybe it’s converting to drip irrigation. Maybe it’s converting small sections here and there.”
If the rebate application is accepted, the landowner will receive a dollar amount per square foot of turf removed, up to 2,500 square feet, or 50% of the cost of an irrigation upgrade up to $1,000.
The evaluations have become the heart of the program. Conducted mainly in two-person teams, the $100 evaluations include personalized attention to each property, including walking the property with the landowner, a discussion including where they could remove their turf, the potential replacement options, an evaluation of the irrigation system’s efficiency, and a discussion of the landowner’s goals, likes and dislikes. “We cover all the bases so that we can take all that information, bring it back, and then create a specialized report for that landowner,” Waterman-Snow said.
The specialized reports are typically around 25 pages long, and include information from mapped turf removal locations and strategies for removal, specific replacement options, spanning from “permeable hardscaping options to a water-wise perennial native garden,” Waterman-Snow said. The report also includes resources for landowners down to minute details, including a personalized list of water-wise plants for homeowners based on their yard and their desires.
The first land evaluations took place in fall 2023.
“When we started out, this portion wasn’t as big as then it grew to be. We said, ‘Oh, we’ll do the evaluation. It’ll be quick. And then we’ll use that to issue a rebate.’ We started finding out that that was the most valuable part of the whole process for people,” Waterman-Snow said. “People wanted somebody to come out, to talk to, to throw around ideas with, and to give them some direction of what to do next.”
In the first year of the program, Beyond Lawn has resulted in the replacement of 25,501 square feet of privately-owned turf. The program’s demonstration gardens, including one in Eagle and one in Edwards, account for an additional 7,000 square feet of replaced turf.
“Just being able to give people a roadmap, I think, has been pretty impactful. And it’s only getting better. We’re only improving,” Waterman-Snow said.
While the rebates are grant-funded, “we feel pretty good having funding through at least part of next year,” Waterman-Snow said.
Some of the funding from the conservation district’s mill levy that passed in the recent election may also ultimately be allocated to supporting the Beyond Lawn program when the grant funding runs out.
“We’ve spent a lot of hard work and time building this program, and we think it’s really impactful to the community. So we would like to be able to continue offering it,” Waterman-Snow said.
Who qualifies for Beyond Lawn?
The Eagle River Water and Sanitation District and Upper Eagle Regional Water Authority already provide water efficiency rebates to customers, so for equity, the Beyond Lawn program applies to areas outside the district and authority — Red Cliff, Minturn, Eagle, Gypsum, Dotsero and parts of Wolcott.
Landowners are eligible to participate in the program even if they stopped watering their lawns or allowed noxious weeds to take over. The conservation district offers a cost-share program for homeowners who need to have noxious weeds eliminated, and the Eagle River Coalition offers a tree swap program for non-native trees. “The nice thing about Beyond Lawn and the integration and collaboration between our respective organizations is that we can approach these landscapes with a holistic approach,” Waterman-Snow said.
Homeowner’s Associations, apartment complexes and businesses are also eligible to participate in Beyond Lawn, with the first two having a higher allocation of land eligible to be rebated — 7,500 square feet.
The options for turf replacement are numerous, and exist across a spectrum, depending on the amount of work and funding the landowner wants to put into the project and the size of their yard. Options include meadowscaping — a blend of native grasses and native wildflowers that can cover a large yard — mulch beds with shrubs, combinations of soft and hardscaping — plants and gravel pathways — and more.
“Landscape conversions are not cheap. Irrigation upgrades are not cheap. So we want to enable people to make those changes and not feel like it’s an impossible change to make because of the financial strain,” Waterman-Snow said.
Sometimes, fixing a malfunctioning irrigation system can make the most dramatic difference, and both fixing the irrigation and replanting the yard can lead to cost savings on water bills.
“We want to help people you know find ways to pay less in their water bills, but not just stop irrigating and create a dust bowl in their backyard and a noxious weed problem,” Waterman-Snow said.
While there are no Beyond Lawn evaluations taking place over the winter, those interested in participating in the spring can join a waitlist on the Beyond Lawn website, BeyondLawn.org. For those who want to start right now, the website has resources including suggested plants, local landscapers, information on how to remove turf and more.
