Cash for Grass: How Turf Rebates Conquered the West
The Las Vegas model — paying residents to tear out lawns — has become the most replicated water-conservation program in the arid United States.
By AGUACYCLE News Room
Lawns are the largest irrigated 'crop' in the United States, and in the desert, every square foot of grass is a steady consumptive loss. That math made turf the target of the West's most successful conservation push.
The Las Vegas blueprint
Southern Nevada pioneered cash-for-grass rebates and later banned nonfunctional decorative turf outright, removing hundreds of millions of square feet of grass. Because outdoor water is consumptive — it can't be recycled like indoor water — cutting it delivers permanent savings.
From Phoenix to St. George to Southern California, the model has spread, paired with demonstration gardens showing residents what a beautiful desert landscape looks like without a lawn.
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