After several years of severe drought in California, residents of the state have sought to adapt to a reality that contrasts with the ideal of many traditional homes in the area: houses surrounded by large green areas and abundant vegetation that need gardeners to maintain them.
Many have instead opted for low-water, also known as "drought-tolerant" gardens, which – while a positive step in an area of water stress – have greatly reduced employment opportunities for thousands of people. people who offer their gardening and landscaping services in the state.
“Maintenance visits are cut off
,” said gardener Gonzalo Ruiz, 56, in an interview with Noticias Telemundo.
“When there is a drought I don't have as many visitors.”
Ruiz, who has been offering landscaping
services in Southern California
for 25 years
,
explained that from having about 30 garden maintenance visits a week, his work has been reduced to between 15 and 20 weekly visits that decrease even more in season. of drought (which is usually summer), which has important salary consequences for him and his son, who is also dedicated to garden maintenance.
Drought-tolerant garden, Atwater Village, Los Angeles, California.
The three states with the most people dedicated to this profession are California, Florida and Texas, according to the Government Labor Statistics site.Education Images / Universal Images Group via Getty
In other cases, people opt for dry gardens.
“Sometimes they lay desert plants, the kind that don't take up much water.
They put stone and sand better.
And those who want, well, I do that job for them: I change their garden,” adds Ruiz, who has had to open his horizons and offer other services, given the reduction in the job offer.
Fewer people dedicating themselves to the profession
According to employment and occupational wage statistics, about 106,550 gardeners and landscapers worked in California in 2019, not counting those who worked independently.
By 2022, that number had decreased to 105,040.
That is to say: in three years, there were about 1,500 fewer gardeners.
And those who are still active do not have scheduled appointments every day.
“
Nowadays, many workers rest,” Moisés Chávez, who has been offering his gardening and landscaping services in the Los Angeles area, tells Noticias Telemundo: "Most of those who work in that, when they can't find clients, they leave. "They go to the stops they are told and look for what happens."
That is, they carry out other tasks not necessarily related to gardening to earn an income.
In 2021, as California faced its second driest year on record, the state's governor, Gavin Newsom, made a drought emergency declaration calling on residents to reduce water use by 15% compared to 2020. , and prohibited water-wasting practices, including the use of water to wash sidewalks.
A drought-tolerant garden in Irvine, California.
Jae C. Hong / AP
The order also required local water providers to implement contingency plans based on local conditions.
And in June 2022, many water providers in Southern California imposed strict irrigation regulations for ornamental grasses in commercial and institutional facilities, according to local media Cal Matters.
[A study confirms that the climate emergency has caused record heat waves in the US, Europe and China]
That same year, a 17-year-old boy started a change.org petition to reduce watering limits, highlighting the impact of the restrictions on the community of those offering gardening services.
“If there are no living plants, there is no purpose for me
or for the thousands of gardeners who work in California every day, who work countless hours outdoors to support their families and make a living,” he warned in the message. .
Although the rains at the beginning of 2023 restored the state's reservoirs, state authorities stressed that water conservation should be a lifestyle.
According to Chávez, his work has been impacted by the drought and the restrictions that have arisen as a consequence:
“People no longer want to do
landscape
work because when the heat comes the waters go down and the plants die
,” added Chávez: “ I think 30% or 40% (of their clients) prefer dry gardens and the rest leave it as it is.”
Gardener Hilario Zesati waters a brown grass in Woodland Hills, near Sacramento.Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
Conserve water without damaging the landscape
Although the 2023 rains brought some relief after three years of severe droughts in the state, experts warn that
Future weather patterns in California will be one of constant drought interrupted by very wet interludes.
Given these forecasts, local publications offer advice on how to have a drought-tolerant garden with low-water consumption plants.
This, however,
does not mean that all plants should be changed to succulents or cacti
that do not require maintenance, experts warn.
“Many people seek to save water in their gardens.
However, when we close irrigation systems, this has a detrimental effect on the plants that grow around us,” explains Missy Gable, from the University of California of Agriculture and Natural Resources, to Noticias Telemundo, who highlights that, although some Gardens can be replanted, when a tree dies all its benefits are lost: they can no longer filter carbon or provide shade.
“A tree placed in the right place, which shades your air conditioning unit, can increase the efficiency of that air conditioning.
“You can reduce the amount of air conditioning you need by simply shading your home and reducing the temperature,” he says.
“Trees also reduce the temperature of the pavement beneath them.”
That is why experts recommend that people who want to reduce water consumption in their garden, first of all, give priority to trees and rather replace grass, which consumes a lot of water, with plants native to California or Mediterranean climates.
“Plants from other Mediterranean climates like Chile and Australia can survive and thrive beautifully in our climate,” Gable explains.
But of course, that means gardeners would have even less grass to mow and maintain.
California, a “vulnerable” area
Everything indicates that the trade in the state will continue to be impacted in the future: a key aspect regarding climate change is that, although it affects globally, it has differentiated effects in each region, according to Nain Martínez, a specialist in climate change policies by the University of UC Berkeley who spoke with Noticias Telemundo.
And California, being a Mediterranean ecosystem (that is, humid in winter and dry in summer)
is a region particularly sensitive to the effects of global warming
, adds the expert.
These effects, according to Martínez, can be seen in the increase in droughts and forest fires.
In the United States, the climate emergency is causing longer, hotter and more frequent heat waves, according to a NASA report.
Additionally, extreme heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths, surpassing hurricanes and floods, according to the National Weather Service.
[Why is the United States freezing while the rest of the world endures high temperatures?]
Despite warnings from international agencies such as the UN about the importance of the climate emergency, this is an issue that has deeply divided Democrats and Republicans in the United States.
President Joe Biden has called climate change an “existential threat to our nation and the world.”
And most Democrats in the country echo the president's sentiment, according to a Post-UMD poll, cited by the Washington Post, while most Republicans see it as a “minor issue” or “not a problem.” a problem at all.”
Both during the campaign and during his presidency, former President Donald Trump has denied the climate emergency: during his Administration, the United States left the Paris climate agreement.
Trump also claimed, against all scientific evidence, that the Earth's rising temperatures “will start to cool,” when a California environmental official challenged him on the issue in 2020. The former president has also called the climate emergency a “ fictitious problem”, a “hoax”, “non-existent” and “a very, very expensive form of tax”.
Trump's campaign statements and the policy proposals being drafted by hundreds of his supporters suggest that his possible return to the White House would bring with it an all-out war against science and climate policies, a Politico report warns.
In the case of California, heat waves did not hit the entire state in the same way, according to the study published by NASA.
“Southern Los Angeles County and Orange County remained cooler, given their proximity to the Pacific Ocean and coastal humidity.
Valley regions, including San Fernando and Riverside, became drier and warmer.
And downtown Los Angeles was between the two extremes,” the report adds.
“Valley areas, such as those in San Bernardino and Riverside counties, experienced the greatest change from recent historical averages, with up to 10.8 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius) of additional thermal stress during heat wave nights. "wet."
Meanwhile, gardeners still active in the state are trying to care for their clients while facing reduced hours and maintenance visits, and expanding the services they offer to meet the new needs imposed by the new reality.