Visiting Editors: Looking into the future of our lawns and health care
After brown grass, what’s next?
It looks like all California homeowners will be coping with drought emergency regulations that include watering just two days a week. Each city in Stanislaus County will have to reduce water use by at least 28 percent.
These are tall orders. Fines for violators seem to be increasing daily as this drought drags on. We should see lawns going brown this summer.
But what happens after this drought ends? It could be that living with less water has become a permanent reality. For our county, consider groundwater sustainability, increased unimpaired flows in our rivers and climate-change scenarios of higher temperatures and less rainfall.
If we look beyond the current drought, life may not go back to “normal” in our urban landscapes. Since the state views watering outdoor ornamental landscape to be the least essential use of urban water, expect more regulations that drive all Californians toward drought tolerant-landscaping – namely, xeriscaping. We are not ready for that.
The state needs to enable xeriscape conversion incentives of a meaningful magnitude. Its Turf Replacement Initiative covers only about 0.1 percent of the homes in the state. This is not even a drop in the bucket. Xeriscaping know-how and materials need to be put into the hands of homeowners and landscaping professionals.
Modesto Junior College, which does not offer courses in xeriscaping, can help in a big way, as can the UC Cooperative Extension.
Our county, cities and local water agencies can amplify the message to homeowners. Of course, nurseries need to stock a much broader selection of water-miserly plants.
The good news is that converting to xeriscape will benefit the local economy, enhance home values and get homeowners back into their gardens – which are all good for our community!
To view examples of the “new normal” of xeriscaping, surf to the Idea Gallery at www.saveourwater.org.
Smith, an Oakdale resident, leads grape-growing, winemaking, and related research at E.&J. Gallo Winery.
Give reform a chance to work
The terms “health care reform” or Affordable Care Act are usually met with an apprehensive glance or a sigh with a quick eye roll. It’s true that rolling out the ACA has not been a smooth transition over the past five years, and many have struggled to understand their new benefits and many of the rulings concerning mandatory coverage.
While these struggles are very real, there are upsides to the new reform. When the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2010, one of its biggest benefits was the extinction of pre-existing conditions for an insurance company to deny coverage. Individuals can no longer be charged additional costs denied treatment due to a former sickness or injury, or removed from their health plan.
For those who have been unable to obtain health care previously, this means they can now seek treatment for the illnesses or injuries that have been afflicting them for months or even years.
Another important benefit is obvious. Now tens of millions of people who were uninsured have access to affordable, high-quality health insurance through many avenues such as Medicaid expansion, employer-paid insurance or through the health insurance marketplace such as Covered California.
With insurance, people now are able to seek treatment through doctors or clinics rather than crowd into our far more expensive emergency rooms for minor illnesses or injuries. That results in lower costs for taxpayers.
Every new ruling has a list of pros and cons a mile long, and there are still quite a few issues that need to be ironed out before ACA will be accepted by everyone, but the positive intent is there. If we give it time, we all will see the benefits.
Kinney is a Turlock resident, who works for Struck Insurance Services in Modesto.
BECOME A VISITING EDITOR
Each quarter, The Bee invites a few members of the community to join our editorial board through the Visiting Editor program. The board meets once a week (Wednesdays at 2:30 p.m.), often engaging community leaders and activists on public issues ranging from agriculture to politics to recreation. Visiting editors serve three months and have an opportunity to write short editorials on local topics of their choosing. To apply, send an email and résumé to mdunbar@modbee.com or call (209) 578-2325 for more information.
This story was originally published May 2, 2015 at 7:38 PM with the headline "Visiting Editors: Looking into the future of our lawns and health care."