T
he Alliance for Water Efficiency
(AWE) is a non-profit organi-
zation that is dedicated to the
efficient and sustainable use of
water in the US and beyond.
On April 1, 2015, the AWE presented
a webinar that addressed the topic of
drought tolerant turfgrasses and their
use in ornamental landscapes. Webinar
authors were Dr. Kelly Kopp, Utah State
University; Dr. Mike Richardson and Dr.
Doug Karcher, University of Arkansas;
and Jack Karlin, Turfgrass Water
Conservation Alliance (TWCA).
FUNCTIONAL BENEFITS
OF TURFGRASS
The webinar began with Dr. Kelly Kopp
framing the question of turfgrass use in
the landscape with an emphasis on the
functional benefits of turfgrasses. She
noted that throughout her career work-
ing in landscape water conservation and
turfgrass management, the functional
benefits of grasses are rarely, if ever,
mentioned during landscape water use
discussions. But grasses do, in fact, have
many functional benefits in the land-
scape including controlling soil erosion,
reduction of storm runoff, dust suppres-
sion, and carbon sequestration, to name
just a few.
Dr. Kopp spent time emphasizing
the atmospheric cooling benefits of
turfgrass noting the large temperature
discrepancies that have been measured
between actively growing turfgrass
areas, bare soil, and synthetic turf sur-
faces. In the studies mentioned, actively
growing bermudagrass turf surface
temperatures were as much as 60 F
cooler than synthetic turf surfaces.
28 SportsTurf | August 2015 www.sportsturfonline.com
NOTES FROM WEBINAR
ON DROUGHT-TOLERANT
TURFGRASS
FIELD SCIENCE
Editor's note: Thanks to Turfgrass Producers International and its publication,
Turf News, for permission to reprint this article.
Seeding a new test of Kentucky bluegrass cultivars in
Logan, UT. Photo courtesy of TWCA.
