UPCOMING LAND RESILIENCE PARTNERSHIP PROJECT: LA TERCERA PARK

Project Completion Date: Fall 2024
Potential installations: Lawn conversion, rain garden, increased shade canopy

Join the Land Resilience Partnership!

Daily Acts is excited to partner with the Land Resilience Partnership to help you build drought resilience where you live, work and play! Apply to find out if you’re eligible for:

  • Free full-scope landscape designs
  • Free labor for installation
  • Low or no cost for materials

Is there a place in Petaluma that you live or regularly occupy that would benefit from:

  • Installing a rain tank
  • Designing a rain garden
  • Constructing a DIY greywater system
  • Upgrading irrigation & fixture efficiencies
  • Converting your lawn to a drought-tolerant landscape
  • Knowing which pollinator plants to put in your yard
  • Understanding opportunities on your site to build climate resilience

If the answer is YES to any of these, you may be interested in joining the Land Resilience Partnership! East Side Petaluma participants are especially encouraged to apply.

Build climate and drought resilience with local on-site tools

climate resilience

Irrigation Efficiency Upgrades

Irrigation efficiencies are strategies aimed at minimizing the loss of water due to evaporation leaks, and runoff. This may include upgrading irrigation timers to a more efficient water delivery that reduces consumptive use while maintaining the same amount of healthy and attractive landscape. By switching irrigation times on existing irrigation systems to morning or evening when temperatures are lower, less water is lost to evaporation.

Lawn Conversion

Lawn Conversion is the removal of a monocrop landscape and planting low water or native plants. The shallow roots of turf grass compact soils limiting water absorption when it rains. Runoff picks up any chemicals or fertilizers from your yard and transfers them to local streams. With the installation of native species or low water use plants, roots are given a chance to grow deeper and create systems that hold water in the soil and lessening runoff.

Increase Shade Canopy

Increasing shade canopy on any landscape means more than just planting trees, though that is the most impactful solution. It can often mean the implementation of a variety of plants that decrease the amount of sunlight exposure on the soil. This can result in lowering the temperature of the area and increased soil health. With more shade on the ground, water retention in the soil increases, resulting in homeowners having to irrigate less than before.

Raingardens & Stormwater Management

Stormwater is water that falls onto the landscape during a storm, and often runs off into storm drains, picking up pollutants on its way. Benefits of capturing this water within your landscape are: improved air quality, habitat enhancement, extreme heat island effect mitigation, and higher property value. Rain gardens are small basins made in the landscape that help to retain water after a storm, allowing for deeper soil penetration and better soil health.

Laundry Greywater Reuse

Laundry greywater is gently used water from your washing machine. Instead of sending greywater to your septic system, it’s possible to utilize that water to irrigate your garden or landscape. While greywater may look “dirty” it’s a safe and even beneficial source of irrigation water in a yard. If greywater is directly released in rivers or streams its nutrients become pollutants, but for plants, they are valuable fertilizer. Pay for your water once and use it twice!

climate resilience

Rainwater Harvesting

Rainwater harvesting is the capturing and storage of rainwater that runs off hard surfaces such as roofs. Gravity pulls water down through the gutters into the storage rain tank. Overflow from the tank can be directed to rain gardens, where the water can infiltrate the soil and refill aquifers. This FREE water, that would have otherwise been lost due to run-off, can be stored and used to water gardens and landscapes long after the rainy season has passed.

Featured Water-Saving Project Installations

Through the Land Resilience Partnership Program, Daily Acts will be installing 60 water-saving projects in Petaluma! These projects will include on-site tools including rainwater catchment systems, rain gardens and bioswales, graywater reuse systems, turf conversions, drip irrigation conversions and planting habitat and shade trees. Take a look at some of our featured installations below:

Installations Completed 32%

Landscape Designs: Site Assessments & Catalog of Projects

Through the Land Resilience Partnership Program, 125 residential and public sites will receive technical assistance such as planning and design support. Following a site assessment, Daily Acts will produce a Catalog of Projects: a site specific design that lists projects and priorities that can be implemented on site to save water, mitigate flooding, and build land resilience. This document provides project specific data that captures the water savings benefit associated with each project. Recipients of a Catalog of Projects will not only be provided with a site specific design, but also Daily Acts’ trusted contractor referral list and a multitude of project specific resources to support our community members’ land resilience journey. Click the images to see design examples!

Landscape Designs Delivered 55%

About the Land Resilience Partnership

Daily Acts is excited to announce that we have received a grant from the California Department of Water Resources to support community-based drought resilience for Petaluma residents! This project, running through March 2026, will focus on Petaluma’s East Side where residents have experienced the greatest fluctuation of drought and flood related impacts.

This project will employ the Watershed Progressives’ Land Resilience Partnership model which has been used successfully in other regions in the state to address drought impacts and reduce water use. Starting with a geospatial analysis of the city, this model identifies locations where small-scale projects like rainwater catchment systems, rain gardens and bioswales, graywater reuse systems, turf conversions, drip irrigation conversions and planting habitat and shade trees in mass can have a big impact. This community-based drought resilience and response model will provide multiple benefits including water use reduction, fire resilience, flood reduction, habitat and urban shade.

Together with partners from the Watershed Progressive, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, and City of Petaluma, along with local contractors and volunteers, a total of 125 residential and public sites will receive technical assistance such as planning and design support. From there, 60 projects will be implemented on those sites providing residents with materials and installation support for a number of water saving solutions. Think of it as scaling Daily Acts’ on-the-ground solutions to the next level!

125 residential & public sites will receive technical assistance

60 water-saving projects will be installed on those sites by community

These projects will result in water use reduction, fire resilience, flood reduction, habitat and urban shade

125 residential & public sites will receive technical assistance

60 water-saving projects will be installed on those sites by community

These projects will result in water use reduction, fire resilience, flood reduction, habitat and urban shade

Our Partners & Sponsors

Don’t miss a single thing!
Sign up for Daily Acts’ email updates: