Landscaping a better tomorrow

California’s landscape is under siege.

A battle between ethics and aesthetics is determined to shape the physical makeup of the region and its future.

Climate change is steadily making the world more hostile to human life. A recent UN climate report issued by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts catastrophic damage that will lead to “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.”

Devastating drought, heat waves, wildfires, storms and food shortages are expected to get worse, but the effects of these forces of nature are exacerbated by an unintelligently designed man-made landscape.

Invasive plants meant as decoration and those that have travelled the globe as stowaways have spread their roots all over California. The Spanish first began exploring California in the 16^th and 17^th century and founded the first colony in San Diego in 1769. Colonists brought with them seeds from across Europe and parts of Asia, and ever since native biomes have been transformed by waves of settlers.

In the 1840s and ‘50s the California Gold Rush created a huge demand for lumber. At the time, Australian eucalyptus was touted as a miracle tree that could solve the need for timber and also serve as a source of fuel, medicine, wood pulp and versatile oil.

But was too good to be true. Millions of trees were planted as a quick cash crop, but it was discovered that it took 75 to 100 years for the wood to become high-grade timber and the quality of the oil did not compare to that which came from Australia.

It is already bad enough that the trees produce flammable oil, but some species like the blue gum create a layer of kindling as they shed their bark.

Clearing out invasive species and promoting native plants is a good start, but environmentally friendly landscaping is also making the best use of land.

There is one species of plant that has come to dominate the California landscape even more than the eucalyptus – Palm trees.

Palm trees are so associated with California that many of the world’s 2,500 species of palm or palm-like plants have found their way here. Even the California fan palm – the only palm native to the western United States – is problematic. It is a species adapted to desert oases and riverbanks, but they have been overplanted. They actually require more water than hardwood trees and provide less shade.

A lot of effort has been spent transforming California into a West Coast paradise, but these modifications have consequences. Man-made changes to the environment have destroyed civilizations before. At its height, the Maya consisted of 40 cities and about 2 million people. This led to significant deforestation across the Yucatán Peninsula.

Fewer trees meant less rain. Less rain meant less food.

Unable to feed its people, Mayan civilization crumbled.

Had the Mayans known their giant stone temples and farming practices were to blame, would they have changed their ways to survive?

Californians must act to avoid the same fate by developing an environment that will resist the most dangerous aspects of climate change. That means creating a living space that is not dangerous to its inhabitants, that contributes to the well being of all.

Living in a concrete jungle can be hot and miserable. Although recent San Diego heat waves were not deadly, they could be in the future. Steps should be taken to reduce their impact.

Miles of heat-amplifying asphalt can be 50-60 degrees hotter than the air in direct sunlight. In many San Diego county urban areas there is a dearth of shade and greenery to cool down the air. An “urban heat island” is a metropolitan area that is much hotter than the surrounding region.

Planting more trees on sidewalks is a good start. We must also reclaim land currently used for automobiles to create more liveable space. There are simply too many cars. More land needs to be “pedestrianized” to help thermoregulate urban areas make sure cities are safe and comfortable during the warmest months.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the city council recently won a legal battle to proceed with an effort to remove automobiles from the center of Balboa Park. They hope to improve the Plaza de Panama by building a bypass road and parking garage that will make the plaza friendlier to pedestrians.

This strategy of reclaiming space should expand beyond public parks. Streets and sidewalks should be converted en masse to green spaces.

This does not necessarily mean places with lush carpets of grass.

Water requirements, pesticides, fertilizers and gasoline-powered lawnmowers give each blade of grass a carbon footprint. When grass absorbs the nitrogen-rich fertilizer, it produces nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 300 times more effective than carbon at trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Alternatives include rock gardens, planting clover or “xeriscaping,” a method of landscaping intended to minimize the need for watering and promote native species. Xeriscaping is named from the Greek prefix xero-, which means dry.

Given the catastrophic dryness that much of Southern California suffers from, it makes almost too much sense that yards, parks and other green spaces should be designed in a way that best suits the local climate.

Cities, homeowners associations and individuals must insist on environmentally-friendly yards and landscape if the fight against climate change is to have a chance.