Natural Perspectives:

The 14 million people living in the greater Los Angeles area put a lot of demand on our limited water resources. After all, it only rains an average of 15 inches a year along the Southern California coast.

Vic and I plan to save some of the rain that falls this winter for use in our garden during dry periods.

But the storm last week caught us unprepared. Vic and I had new gutters installed on most of the north side of our house and bought a rain barrel, but they’re not connected yet. I thought I had more time to get ready before the start of rainy season.

On short notice of the approaching storm, I quickly set out three large plastic containers under different parts of our eaves. Two of the containers were old trash bins that went out of service when we got the bins from Rainbow. I use our old ones to hold green waste on days when my trimmings exceed the capacity of the green waste bin. Unfortunately, those containers are so worn out that there are tiny holes in the bottom. They collected nothing.

I had better luck with a container called a Tubtrug. This rubber, two-handled, flexible bucket caught about five gallons of rain that came rolling off one section of our roof. I didn’t want the water hanging around in an open container for long out of fear that it would breed mosquitoes. I used the saved rainwater when I planted artichokes and rhubarb a few days later. While five gallons isn’t much, it’s a beginning.

Vic tells me that we use about 50 gallons of water a day apiece, which is about half what the average Californian consumes. So that five gallons was 10% of one day’s use by one of us. Hey, that’s better than turning on the tap to get five gallons. No fossil fuel was burned to bring that water over the mountains, and no energy was expended purifying it. That’s my idea of a great savings. When we get our 50-gallon rain barrel connected, we’ll be able to save even more.

On the subject of water, the Friends of Shipley Nature Center are selling a new children’s book, “The Mystery of Blackbird Pond,” which was written and illustrated by Diane Iverson. The book features gorgeous drawings of the birds and animals that visit Shipley’s Blackbird Pond. The mystery is what happened to the water.

Turns out that it’s no mystery at all. The water tables are so low during drought times that the pond dries up.

With society pumping water out of the ground faster than rain can put it back in, the water table drops, and the pond dries up.

The book also points out that during years of lower-than-normal rainfall, there are fewer seeds produced, fewer plants, fewer insects that feed on the plants, fewer birds, mice, rabbits, squirrels and coyotes, and so on up the food chain.

The end of the book contains many suggestions of things that we can all do to help conserve water, such as turning off the faucet when brushing our teeth, planting drought-tolerant landscaping and saving water in a bucket when running the tap to get hot water.

The Friends of Shipley Nature Center are hosting a book signing at the nature center in Central Park on Sunday. While you’re there, take a look at the new stream by the native plant demonstration garden. This $25,000 project donated by Aquascapes Inc. captures rainwater from the nature center’s roof and stores it in a 15-foot-by-15-foot underground cistern.

The rainwater is then pumped to a 25-foot-long recirculating stream where it serves as a year-round water source for Shipley’s wild birds and other wildlife.

You can find out more about Aquascapes at www.aquascapesinc.com.

Another event relating to water conservation occurred two weeks ago, when Golden West College and the Huntington Beach Rotary Club held a wonderful event for kids (and parents) called Science Night. Several hundred elementary school students visited the college on a Friday night and found classrooms set up with science and nature displays. The environment was a major theme, with rooms dedicated to animal tracking and conservation of water and electricity.

Vic hosted a room dedicated to human anatomy. He said the youngsters did a better job than many of their parents in identifying kidneys, lungs, livers and intestines.

In anticipation of Halloween, one room focused on bats and their ecological benefits to us all. Vic and I congratulate the college and the Huntington Beach Rotary Club for putting on a great event.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].