Photo Information

The Monday through Friday civil engineering staff spending the morning clearing plants from the exterior of the building. (U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. Anna Ruiz)

Photo by Capt. Anna Ruiz

Civil engineers conserve water through self-help landscape renovations

1 Jul 2009 | Megan Just

The civil engineers had a good excuse to get outside this month as they replaced the plants in front of their building and the Communications Squadron building with landscaping more suitable for an arid environment. Mr. Richard Eunice, the Base Civil Engineer, initiated the self-help landscaping project several months ago to conserve water and save money on base operating costs. 

The Monday through Friday civil engineering staff put the plan into action on June 5, spending the morning clearing plants from the exterior of the building. Staff from the Communications Squadron joined them removing plants and preparing the site to be covered with 'California Gold' rock. On June 13, the A UTA MSG Civil Engineering Squadron reservists finished with work using heavy equipment. 

"Self help projects are a way for us to save money on our real property maintenance contract. We wouldn't be able to complete jobs like this without doing the labor ourselves," said Ryan Wood, the Deputy Base Civil Engineer. 

The landscaping project will be complete once the engineers decorate the rock covered beds with a few larger boulders and drought-tolerant plants. 

But already, the project has seen results. "We were able to turn water off all together except a drip for the trees," Wood said. 

Conserving water is an especially important issue on March. "March Air Reserve Base occupies about twenty five percent of the total square footage of all reserve bases in Air Force Reserve Command while March uses almost fifty percent of the total water consumed by all Air Force Reserve Command bases nationwide," Wood said. Unlike other Reserve bases that receive sufficient rainfall, March only received 7.81 inches of rain in 2008 and has only received 2.09 inches so far this year. 

The civil engineers' project is meant to be a test for possible xeriscaping elsewhere on base. Xeriscaping (dry landscaping) eliminates the need to irrigate by using a bed designed to reduce water runoff and plants suited to the local climate. 

"We want to see how it looks, see if people like it," Wood said. He explained that while it is nice to have grass and flowers on the main parts of base, there is no reason not to xeriscape on the parts of base that are off the beaten path. Less grass would reduce the base's costs of mowing, fertilizing and watering. 

CE encourages other units at March to initiate self-help projects for the interior or exterior of their buildings. The process starts by submitting a base CE Work Request (AF-332), detailing the issue and specifying that labor will be provided by the unit. CE supports approved projects by taking care of details such as dig permits or Material Safety Data Sheets. 

Self-help projects are good for the base and they are good for the participants who are able to take initiative in improving their work environment. "I wish I had a day like that every week," Wood said.