To help combat California's worst drought for more than 1,000 years, state governor Jerry Brown has called for the replacement of urban lawns with drought-tolerant landscaping (see go.nature.com/cvqw4l). Applied on a larger scale than he proposes, this move would boost the region's threatened biodiversity and improve water conservation.

The governor's designated “50 million square feet of lawns” amounts to 4.64 square kilometres, or just 0.04% of the estimated 11,000 km2 of turf grass in California (C. Milesi et al. Environ. Manage. 36, 426–438; 2005). Planting drought-resistant native vegetation instead of non-native turf grasses would spare water and help to restore native ecosystems in the longer term.

Ecologists should work with municipal initiatives to expand such refurbished urban green spaces into nearby areas of native vegetation, which would restore connectivity between native-habitat remnants. This model could be applied in other drought-stricken regions with high biodiversity, such as those in Australia and southeast Brazil.