Being water-wise in developing a yard not only helps the town conserve water but helps nature species in the area thrive.

This final free session of a Sustainable Living series of the Cochrane Environmental Action Committee (CEAC) will provide insight into how to enrich your yards while conserving water.

It's being held at the Frank Wills Memorial Hall, 405-1 St. E., on Sat. Apr. 29 starting at 1 p.m. You can register here.

Calgary landscaper and author Laureen Rama, who founded Eco-yards, will be providing insight on how to make your yard more water-wise. She'll be talking about ways to make your lawn less thirsty, replace your grass, manage rainwater, and plant choices that use less water.

Colleen Cyca is a permaculture designer and will share her knowledge on how to get the best results from your rain barrels using the treatment train during her presentation, "Rainwater Harvesting for your Gardens."

CEAC president Tim Giese says there are numerous reasons to conserve water.

To start with, it will benefit the town.

"Water management is going to become a huge issue. You've got to give credit to the town, they've tried all kinds of things--incentives to get people to use less and less water, they have good tiered water management system--but all those things now have kind of come to the end of what we can do.

"As the town grows, the pressure on our water system is going to become enormous, not only because of our licence issues, but the amount of water that comes down the Bow River, and that's going to manifest itself in the summer."

Having vegetation that is better suited to our region than traditional green lawns also allows many species to prosper.

"Plants that are drought and Chinook tolerate so they can deal with hot summers, they can deal with less moisture once they're established. It also has the benefit of being better for birds and bees and other critters that require that kind of vegetation, so it's a win-win situation,"

He says more and more people are attempting to move away from traditional, water-gulping green grass that is better suited for a humid climate, and this session could prove to be immensely beneficial in continuing along that path.

The Sustainable Living series started small in December with a session on electric vehicles, and quickly outgrew a meeting room at the SLS Centre. Since moving to the Frank Wills Memorial Hall, they've been attracting crowds of over 70 people.

Giese says they hope to resume the series in the fall and tackle other topics of value to residents and maybe even revisit a few.