Officials from West Basin Municipal Water District, Surfrider Foundation and the university celebrated the unveiling of a West Basin Ocean Friendly Garden (OFG) on campus during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Thursday, March 26.
Located just outside the entrance gates to the University Housing complex, the garden replaces nearly 7,000 square-feet of grass with 250 water-saving, drought-tolerant trees and plants native to Southern California and will save up to 80 percent of the water previously required for landscaping. Additionally, it is designed to redirect and capture water from the street to allow for natural irrigation of the garden.
The OFG program is part of West Basin’s Water Reliability 2020 program, which aims to reduce dependence on imported water to only 33 percent by 2020 through doubling water recycling, doubling conservation efforts and adding ocean-water desalination to a local, diverse water supply. The garden was funded by CSUDH, University Housing, the Department of Water Resources, and West Basin in partnership with Surfrider Foundation, Green Gardens Group, Stout Design Build, California Water Service Co., and South Bay Environmental Services Center.
“We commend Cal State Dominguez Hills for taking action to reduce its water use in this critical time of drought,” said West Basin Director Harold Williams, who represents the City of Carson. “Together, if our residents, businesses and other universities and schools take this garden concept and implement similar gardens in their homes and communities, we can work to reduce the impact that future droughts will have on California.”
As part of the ceremony, Jimi Castillo, spiritual leader of the Tongva Nation, and his wife, Jeanette, gave a traditional Native American blessing of the garden.
For more information about West Basin’s Ocean Friendly Garden and other water conservation programs, visit here.
