Water Use Policy

UBC Botanical Garden and Centre for Plant Research strongly believes in water conservation, even when water restrictions are not in effect.

The current water shortage in the Greater Vancouver Regional District has prompted the garden to follow a "brown-lawn" policy for its lawn areas. Visitors to the garden will notice the stunning difference between the garden's mostly brown lawns and the lush green grass of the adjacent new housing development.

The scientific living collections receive a reduced watering regime while the watering restrictions are in effect. Our goal is to maintain our internationally-significant collection of living plants while contributing to the broader GVRD community by using the minimum amount of water necessary for the survivability of our collections. In a few isolated places in the garden, the only source of water for shrubs and trees in the collections is by adjacent lawn sprinklers; here you may see green grass.

For more information on water conservation and water use, the GVRD has assembled an excellent collection of online documents:

Business Water Conservation Initiatives
Residential Water Conservation Initiatives
Water Sprinkling Regulations

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 12:15 PM on September 6, 2003