Serving the community since 1926
WEEK OF AUGUST 29, 2024
VOLUME 97 | ISSUE 39
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Plant an Oasis grows biodiversity, community in Washington Park
Denver Water’s system stressed by Monday usage Utility asks customers to consider shifting weekly lawn schedules BY JERD SMITH THE COLORADO SUN
A volunteer presses fresh soil around a new planting during a Plant an Oasis work day.
Local rewilding project creates jobs for refugees through collaboration with African Community Center BY MERYL PHAIR SPECIAL TO COLORADO COMMUNITY MEDIA
Avi Stopper walks out into his yard and watches a hummingbird feed from a red trumpet-shaped Zauschneria flower. Evolving together in the dry Colorado environment, the native plant and its pollinator are a feature in Stopper’s yard through the efforts of Plant an Oasis, a community group in West Washington Park
working to revitalize the neighborhood’s unused grass spaces with native plants. “We call it ‘beverage in hand maintenance,’ which is you don’t just have your yard, but you really enjoy it as your piece of nature,” said Stopper, whose experience with community organizing led him to head the project. “A great way to do this is to take a cup of coffee out in the morning, pick a weed here, water a plant there and appreciate the garden’s growth and changes.” By activating unused yard space, Plant an Oasis is transforming the urban neighborhood into a landscape of native plants, benefiting yard owners, passersby and the wider community. In time, plants attract native pollinators like bees, butterflies and birds to en-
VOICES: 10 | LIFE: 12 | CALENDAR: 14
hance biodiversity in the area. Theorganizationwasinitiallyformed by Deb Lebow, known affectionately across West Washington Park as the Resident Mayor of Plants. Lebow’s reputation as a gardener had many in the neighborhood wondering how they could similarly revitalize their yards. Lebow approached Stopper about her idea to form a volunteer initiative in the community to help neighbors replace unused grass and weeds with native plants. After recruiting volunteers and a neighbor with available yard space, the group got to work on their first project, leaving signs encouraging anyone interested in the initiative to get in touch.
Denver-area homeowners and businesses, in their race to start their automatic sprinklers at 5 a.m. on Mondays, are putting unprecedented stress on Denver Water’s delivery system, threatening its supply of locally stored, treated water. Roughly 80% of the utility’s 1.5 million customers have watering systems that can be set and then left for the season, but too many are going off at 5 a.m. at the start of the week, a period that has become the witching hour for Colorado’s largest water utility. In response, it is asking, nicely, that more people shift from the Monday, Wednesday and Friday summer watering schedule, and use the Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday slots instead. Greg Fisher, manager of demand planning and efficiency, said the trend has been emerging for several years, as climate change drives summer temperatures higher and automated watering systems have become the norm. “Our pretty educated guess is that when people buy a new irrigation controller the default is Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m, and that is when we see our max hours,” Fisher said.
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COURTESY OF PLANT AN OASIS
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HIGH ALTITUDE, HIGH STAKES Mountain emergency response teams are on the scene P12