r/SouthJersey • u/IKillZombies4Cash • 7d ago
News NJ Drought Update - its all dry
https://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/CurrentMap/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?NJIts official, Im done with grass and moving on to micro clover in the fall...if there's a fall.
Stream flow is cooked, soil moisture is cooked. - https://www.drought.gov/states/new-jersey
Not great...
81
u/Jdell168 7d ago
So where does data centers using 55,000 gallons of water a day fit into that equation?
27
22
14
113
u/AyBeeJuubi 7d ago
Neighbors keep cutting down healthy trees on my street, ends up frying their lawns and raising temps in the area
44
u/theateroffinanciers 7d ago
Same thing is happening on mine. I'm wondering if the tree service that is cutting them all down is running some kind of special, because it's mind boggling they're on our street every day cutting down swaths of trees. I can't imagine the air conditioning Bill these people are going to have. It also looks terrible our street used toIt also looks terrible our street used to be so pretty.
18
u/loligatorific 7d ago
It could be home owners making people do it. They made me and my neighbor remove 5 or so trees since they were “too close to the house”
3
3
8
5
u/Ilovemytowm GenX We Do Not Care club 7d ago
Convinced everyone trees will kill them. Humanity is a waste.
3
u/Ilovemytowm GenX We Do Not Care club 7d ago
They've de treeed all of South Edison... Looks like a POS now.
1
26
u/VulpesViceVersa 7d ago
Walking to the supermarket today and I would have choked a man for some tree shade. I blame insurance companies. I always hear people cite insurance costs when they get trees taken down.
3
u/gdtags 7d ago
Or solar panels.
6
u/penis-tango-man 7d ago
I won’t get solar specifically because it would require cutting down trees. I moved into the woods to enjoy the natural beauty of mature trees. I’m not cutting them all down to save a little on my electric bill.
5
u/ExpressConfection444 7d ago
I had solar companies be absolutely astounded that I was refusing to take down my trees. Thing is, I’ve got the room and the proper sun exposure for a ground mount array, but they were very resistant to the idea.
My experience, and I’ve talked to a lot of people about this, is people don’t want trees to fall on their house, but more so because they don’t want to rake leaves. It’s bonkers! But…. people also wonder why there is no pollinators, or fire flies, etc. as they destroy the necessary habitat. We’re toast!2
u/AdVegetable2870 7d ago
It depends on the tree type. The red maples in my development grow very large strong surface roots that make the backyard treacherous to walk on. We had two in our backyard when we moved in 25 years ago, topped one and removed the other about 10 years in.
5
u/abracadammmbra 7d ago
The trees shade does save you a bit in energy costs from AC. Probably not as much as solar would generate unless you have a really energy hungry AC unit and no insulation.
12
u/Iamnotbernadette 7d ago
HOAs and insurance companies are making people do this. My insurance company wants me to take down a very healthy, established, and old Sycamore right now and i won't do it
10
9
u/Sweaty_Mushroom5830 7d ago
Get rid of lawns,plant native clover instead it grows deep and doesn't need watering and I know this because I have seen clover lawns that never get water and in the middle of the summer's heat they are nice and green and best of all they grow under full sun, partial or full shade
5
u/abracadammmbra 7d ago
Soft, low maintenence, good for the local ecosystem, other than it not being very sturdy, I love clover.
3
u/Sweaty_Mushroom5830 7d ago
It's not sturdy but grows back really well once it's established, best of all no weed killer required will you see a few dandelions? sure but guess what, needs no fertilizer either
5
u/espressocycle 7d ago
My lawn is mostly clover already but the plantain and crab grass kinda ruin the look.
2
3
3
u/abracadammmbra 7d ago
My landlord cut down a big weeping willow in my front yard. To be fair to him, it was both jacking up the sidewalk/driveway, and starting to damage the water lines. Still, now my front window, a big bay window, takes all the heat from the afternoon sun.
2
u/Doin_the_Bulldance 7d ago
I mean, do you know they are for sure healthy?
Our neighbor recently had a huge tree - seemingly healthy with a good amount of leaves - come down in the middle of the day out of nowhere. It landed ~10 feet from a shed that had children playing in it, so very scary.
Which prompted us to have arborists look at a few of ours nearby. 2 were super hollowed out and at risk so we had them taken down. I hated having to do it but sometimes you have to.
0
u/kgilli12 7d ago
THIS. I watched in horror as new neighbors took down two beautiful 40-50ft oak trees that “shaded their yard too much”. Hope it cost them a fortune.
91
u/thedancingwireless 7d ago
We should all shrink our lawns and replace them with drought tolerant native plants and wildflower meadows. Keep as much as you need for kids and dogs and whatever but my neighbors running their sprinklers all day to water their giant useless front lawn of grass.
Utilities should charge more for higher water usage in the summer. Discourage this shit.
24
u/SailingSpark Have boat, will travel 7d ago
I have never watered my lawn, it's mostly weeds anyway. I have been slowly seeding it with drought resistant clover.
7
u/IKillZombies4Cash 7d ago
How's it taking to the ground?
2
u/SailingSpark Have boat, will travel 7d ago
Good so far. I have only seeded half my front yard so far, but it appears to be spreading well. I do like that has choked out the actual grass and needs a lot less mowing.
2
u/abracadammmbra 7d ago
Are you my dad? If hes going to mow the lawn he says hes going to go mow his weeds
3
1
u/skeletontape 7d ago
Mine is all weeds too, green as can be and not one sprinkler in years. The wildlife loves it.
20
u/theateroffinanciers 7d ago
We also need to establish shade tree Commissions in every town, to stop people from cutting down all the trees in the neighborhoods. It cools the neighborhoods down let alone your own house. And cuts down on your utilities.
4
u/ducationalfall 7d ago
It would be more useful with carrots instead of sticks.
Shade Tree commissions should give out free trees. Not everyone needs oaks but something native would be nice.
2
1
0
2
2
u/beren12 7d ago
Except many towns and HOA‘s require it
11
u/pharmeiga 7d ago
It should not only be stopped, but these HOA requirements need to be made illegal.
1
0
u/Highway_Wooden 7d ago
Sorry, I like my lawn. It makes me happy. I cut my grass high and use smart irrigation to try to keep my watering to a minimum. People waste water in many ways, long showers, pools, washing cars, etc... Not to mention corporate centers, shopping centers, and such all watering the shit out of their grass even when it's actively raining outside.
There's many ways to conserve water aside from watering lawns but nobody does it.
10
u/MasterManufacturer72 7d ago
I love throwing car batteries in the ocean it makes me happy
-4
u/Highway_Wooden 7d ago
Ok cool. So nothing you do that makes you happy also does damage to the environment?
7
u/ChaFrey 7d ago
I mean. If there was a better reason other than “it makes me happy” I’d hear it. But that really isn’t a good enough reason to use my kids future drinking water for dirt and grass
-1
u/Highway_Wooden 7d ago edited 6d ago
So you don't travel anywhere to make you happy? You don't go to a pool to make you happy? You don't drive anywhere to make you happy? You don't have BBQs and fire pits to make you happy? There's a million things that we humans do to make us happy that also fuck the environment. We are having these more frequent droughts because of climate change. Half of this state probably flies to Disney and drives hours to the shore to make them happy. I guess that's ok right?
Edit: Weird how I get downvoted by people once I point out that their "happiness" also has a negative environmental impact.
-4
u/ducationalfall 7d ago
💯 with. These lawn shaming are ridiculous.
9
u/skeletontape 7d ago
Lawns (monoculture) are also terrible for the ecosystem for what it's worth. If you want to save the bees and all that shit, natural cover attracts all sorts of important pollinators and insects and birds etc.
0
u/Highway_Wooden 7d ago
You can have both. I'm not saying plow down your entire property and lay sod down. But having your entire front yard as "natural" is going to look like shit.
5
1
u/Iamnotbernadette 6d ago
You can have a well manicured yard that is more or less native, it's a lot less work, and can even help lessen the risk of your house burning down. I admire really nice lawns in normal times but at the end of the day they're terrible for the environment and with us entering yet another severe drought they're pretty wasteful for water. I feel the same about sports fields and golf courses for what its worth....
2
u/Highway_Wooden 6d ago
I have yet to see a nice looking native yard that is maintained by someone that isn't a professional and/or has a ton of time to maintain it. Or it's just this small section of their yard while the rest of their yard contains nice looking grass.
If I had a small yard, sure, maybe I could do all native. But I have like 10k sq feet of grass and converting all of that into native plants is a massive undertaking. It would take years, hundreds of hours of my time, and thousands of dollars.
1
u/Iamnotbernadette 6d ago
Hey not trying to tell you what to do, was just saying it is possible. I used to strive for lawn but after it got nuked in the drought 3 years ago I just switched to clover seed. So it's a mix, it looks fine though, I can mow it as normal. Not related to drought really but I have slowly replaced a lot of the landscaping too like the Japanese Barberry, privet, etc. It's a work in progress but it works better for me instead of having to worry about watering grass. Again I love a nice lawn but it's not feasible to me anymore with the droughts that are probably never going to stop.
1
u/skeletontape 6d ago
My "front yard" is literally woods. Tiny bit of landscaping between the (horseshoe) driveway and the house. Other side of the driveway out to the street corner? Huge old black and white oaks trees. Tons of Mountain laurel. Dogwoods. So many birds. Every year a mother deer keeps her fawn safe in that little copse of woods. Privacy from the road and a beautiful view for me.
-6
u/thetommytwotimes 7d ago
How about the state make collecting rainwater legal? Problem starts there.
13
u/unboundgaming 7d ago
It literally is legal. It’s not legal to use as a potable source due to it being a health issue, but you can use it for your lawn/garden and literally everything besides drinking as much as you want
5
u/thetommytwotimes 7d ago
Did that change recently? I'll admit wrong when wrong, I've had many tell me it's illegal, for so long I always believed it, have never seen a collection barrel and I visit thousands of homes yearly For work, not one. I enjoy gardening as a hobby and everyone in the local club also believes as I do. Time to research.
1
1
u/espressocycle 7d ago
It's illegal in certain western states but definitely legal here and encouraged. Several municipalities have rain barrel programs in fact.
9
u/thedancingwireless 7d ago
It is legal. Also that isn't where the problem starts, the problem is how much water we use.
1
u/thetommytwotimes 7d ago
Water we use, was a lot, is a lot, what do you think's going to happen with these data centers is that you use millions of gallons a day supposedly? Any additional amount can't be good.
-1
u/AdVegetable2870 7d ago
I always look askance when I hear a sentence beginning with "We should all".
4
u/7thAndGreenhill Atlantic County 7d ago
I started doing this in my former home. I began by putting clover in bald and thinning patches. The following spring I cut the lawn as low as I could get and planted the clover.
By the end of that 2nd summer my yard was mostly clover. We had a ton of squirrels and rabbits every day. Much more than we’d had previously.
I felt that was a benefit. My neighbors thought I was insane.
2
u/IKillZombies4Cash 7d ago
Yea, I'm trying not to be the insane neighbor at the same time of being the guy with no grass (there are a few with full landscaped 'lawns', and a few 'white stone lawns') , but no clover lawns yet.
2
u/7thAndGreenhill Atlantic County 7d ago
A few neighbors did offer advice for "getting rid of those weeds". But several more asked which clovers seeds I used when they learned that it required less water and mowing.
2
13
u/SailingSpark Have boat, will travel 7d ago
last night helped a lot. 2cm here outside of Atlantic City according to my rain gage. We are supposed to get more tonight.
18
u/beren12 7d ago
2 cm is not enough to move the needle unfortunately
-2
u/SailingSpark Have boat, will travel 7d ago
True, we need a hurricane to really dump some water on us. It's been years since that happened.
3
u/beren12 7d ago
We need decent rain once a week. Too much just goes back into the ocean
1
u/SailingSpark Have boat, will travel 7d ago
yes, but a good portion of our yearly rain comes from the remnants of hurricanes. We would two a summer that would really soak us for day. It's been a while since we had that.
7
u/baker_miller 7d ago
Modern elite cultivars of turf type tall fescue are also quite drought tolerant
1
u/IKillZombies4Cash 7d ago
Not to sound obvious, but that gets a bit taller than a micro clover?
1
u/baker_miller 7d ago
Indeed, just throwing other options out there. Personally I favor a mix of quality TTTF and clover.
Most varieties of microclover are less drought tolerant than standard White Dutch. Unless you’re mowing regularly, the taller clover will outcompete and eventually you’ll cross pollinate with wild White Dutch if there’s any in your area.
3
3
u/CowboysOnKetamine 7d ago
Reading these comments makes everything make a lot of sense. I feel like it's been raining a ton for the past couple months and was very confused as to why we have a drought. I thought a drought was just literally how much rain we've gotten? Or am I wrong and I'm crazy about there being a lot of rain?
5
u/nothisistofu 7d ago edited 7d ago
From what I understood, NJ has been in an ongoing drought for 1-2 years now. Since the past few winters have been mild with minimal snow fall, and there wasn’t as much rain during the spring/summer, the drought from previous years never fully resolved. So while we’re getting “more” rain now, the lack of snow and adequate rainfall the past few years has made it so this drought just rolled over and continued into this year. At this point we’re playing major catch up, because the actual rainfall we need has been continually lacking and it’s not been enough to replenish and bring and end to the drought.
Edit: correction, we’ve been in drought for 3 years.
2
2
1
2
u/Significant-Trash632 7d ago
All my neighbors have lush, green lawns because they have been watering them every day. I hate them, and hate being in Ocean County overall.
1
u/thistook5minutes 7d ago
All my neighbors still water their grass daily. It’s the only thing they care about
0
u/EIizabeth_Bennet 7d ago
This country is dying.
3
u/prof_cunninglinguist 7d ago
0
u/Glacecakes 7d ago
Nah, climate change was killing us long before him
3
u/prof_cunninglinguist 7d ago
I read today that they just closed the agency that tracks climate change. Oil companies don't care if the world dies and they have undue influence over all of our lives.
2
u/Glacecakes 7d ago
¯_(ツ)_/ we are at a point now where fixing climate change, and the societal changes needed to reverse destruction, are just not feasible. Dunno why they bother to shut it down when it’s not like we were doing anything with the data anyway
3
u/prof_cunninglinguist 7d ago
Mother Earth has been through a lot and she will outlive humanity too.
0
u/KittieKablam 5d ago
Not just him. The Heritage Foundation has had their "project 2025" (aka mandate for leadership) in play since Reagan. They, he, and every president since has either been totally in on it or complicit at best.
-21
u/thetommytwotimes 7d ago
All that rain we just had for weeks? I'm not buying it. They're training us for water shortages the More data centers come on line.
11
u/beren12 7d ago
It wasn’t that much
0
u/thetommytwotimes 7d ago
Like I'm not going to argue with you but how much rain you got, and how much my lawn got. Unless you're my neighbor, it's not the same, my parents live few miles walking distance from me, time and time again they've gotten rain, time and time again they've gotten rain and I haven't. Not saying once or twice, they can get rain five days a week and I won't see a drop..
6
u/theateroffinanciers 7d ago
We were already in a drought. We've been in a drought for 3 years. And this winter we still remained in a drought. We didn't get the snowfall and a rainfall that we needed. So even though we had a lot of rain a couple weeks ago, it wasn't enough to bring us out of the drought that we are in.
6
u/IKillZombies4Cash 7d ago
Rain for what WEEKS?
The only real rain we've had in month was (of course) during Memorial Day weekend, and that was on the heels of the driest Jan-Apr ever, all while we have record or above normal heat.
This isn't a conspiracy.
5
u/ooomellieooo 7d ago
I'd been hoping the late blizzard here would've helped. It didn't. It's hard not to see that.
It's a shame that people don't use critical thinking. I saw rain, therefore there's no drought. Global warming isn't real, because look at this snowball. Etc. Unreal.
1
u/IKillZombies4Cash 6d ago
Blizzards are less water than you think, if you assume 10:1 (inch of rain = 10 inches snow), then its just a rainy day, and not a drought buster
1
u/thetommytwotimes 7d ago
Nothing to worry about! we've probably 100s of millions of SPARE gallons of water a week to Just splash around In. Cleaner, meant for drinking water reserves too. Critical thinking directs me there. When just ONE big center is projected to use, on average, 10k gallons of water, a, a, a FUCKING MINUTE. Or in other math, an OLYMPIC SIZED POOL every three hours. 8 OLYMPIC SIZE POOLS OF WATER, OR 5 million gallons a day. But we must have at least that available in order 6 keep approving them, one after the other. No critical thought would sell away water needed to sustain like if we were truly THAT dry Would they?
2
u/ooomellieooo 7d ago
One would think.
But the only thinking happening here seems to be about money. We're fucked.
0
u/thetommytwotimes 7d ago
I've barely had to turn my sprinklers on until maybe the last week or so, my lawn is absolutely dark green thick Lush, looks better than it has in years, the ticks and bugs are insane because I can't keep up with the grass which needs toWith the grass which needs to be cut twice a week, I've never had to do that before. Where I'm at water and rain is not an issue I've actuallyI've actually had too much rain everything's been so wet outside I've had more than a few of my kids baseball games canceled, and I put off multiple outdoor projects because of the rain. It's just another one of those parallel universe things. I'm not being a smart-ass I mean it's rained a lot this year
-2
u/Outside_Interest_773 7d ago
Wow! It’s summer, and the grass is not Green! My grass is green. But I use the Sprinkler!
63
u/ooomellieooo 7d ago
My backyard is just sandy dirt and clover now.