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factors which collectively require the Conejo Recreation and Park District to carefully consider the amount of turf in its parks. Given the circumstances, existing turf and landscaping is being maintained at or near failure. Turf is watered - but just enough to keep it alive, not necessarily thriving. Simply watering fewer days per week or fewer minutes per cycle to save water is no longer an option. The turf and landscaping will die. To save water, the District must eliminate some irrigated turf areas altogether. Thus, over one year ago, the District began the process of converting non-essential areas of grass turf into alternative ground cover, such as wood chips, in many of its parks. A listing of those parks, along with an aerial map of the locations for turf reductions is available online at: www.crpd.orn/water. With the Governor's April 1, 2015 Executive Order B-29-15, along with targeted water -use reductions set for water retail agencies (like California American Water, California Water Service Company, and the City of Thousand Oaks), it is evident that the District must take additional steps to reduce the amount of water it uses. This is no simple task. In order for the Conejo Recreation and Park District to do its "fair share" of water conservation (fair share in terms of a reduction in percentage of water used based on the Governor's Executive Order B-29-15), we must do more than what we have already started with turf conversions. The following report contains four recommendations to help the Conejo Recreation and Park District achieve the water -saving reduction targets. Staff's goal in providing these recommendations is to provide the Board with options to meet the required water conservation targets while fulfilling its mission "to enrich the quality of life for our community by preserving and enhancing recreational opportunities, parks and open space." If these recommendations are implemented, there will be less public grass turf acreage at the same time as homeowners throughout the state are removing the grass in their own yards. Thus, what green turf remains will become increasingly vital as a place for the public to play, picnic, recreate, play sports and enjoy community gatherings. And, surrounding the green turf in public parks will be more drought tolerant landscaping, trees and other ground covers. Although the look of our parks will evolve, if resources are available for drought tolerant landscaping to be designed and installed, the utility and appreciation of our public parks will remain. CURRENT USAGE AND EXPENDITURES The District has made every effort to conserve; as of March 1, 2015, the District has used 361 units (748 gallons per unit) of water per acre as compared to 452 units per acre last year at this time. The current year's usage ranks as the 3rd lowest in the nine years of available data. SEE CHARTS ON NEXT PAGE 44 HILLCREST CENTER 403 WEST HILLCREST DRIVE, THOUSAND OAKS, CALIFORNIA 91360-4223 (805) 495-6471 FAX: (805) 497-3199 E-MAIL:parks@crpd.org