As of January 2023, 27.1% of Central California is in extreme drought using real-time government drought data. This is prime agricultural land; about 60 miles wide and runs from California’s northern border near Mt Shasta, to Sacramento, to Bakersfield. Recently, rivers of rain soaked much of California, swelling rivers and bringing the snowcap up to 174% of historic averages. Will that end the drought? Optimism says maybe, but do you want to rely solely on optimism? Currently, California’s reservoirs are at 44.4% of capacity. Around 50% of water is used for the environment such as lakes and rivers, 40% agricultural for our important Central Valley, and 10% urban. Of the urban, residential consumers use 50% of their water use for outdoor irrigation. It’s time to encourage Californians to remove their grass lawns and replace them with artificial turf or drought tolerant landscaping with drip irrigation. By replacing grass lawns, which need around 45 gallons/year/sq. foot of water, the amount of water saved would be equal to one swimming pool per year per household. Every single drop of water is important, and cutting residential use to half of current would make a significant contribution to combating drought.