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Behind the gates of Blackhawk, California, an exclusive community of homes costing more than a million dollars, the warning has gone out: no more brown lawns.

Over the past year, some Blackhawk residents let their lawns die as Californians were ordered to reduce water use, reports CBS News correspondent John Blackstone. Now, the Blackhawk Homeowners Association is telling residents they must beautify their front yards, even though officially California is still in a drought.

California’s devastating 4-year-old drought showed signs Thursday of easing its grip on the nation’s most populous state — if only a little.

For the first time in three years, less than 90% of California is in drought, the U.S. Drought Monitor, a federal website that tracks the dry conditions, reported. The decrease may not sound like a lot, but it’s still welcome news for the state’s 38 million residents dealing with widespread water restrictions, which could soon be amended.

 

There’s something different about Will Bucklin’s grape vines. At first it’s hard to notice, but a drive through northern California’s Sonoma Valley, past waves of green, manicured vineyards, makes it clear. The black ribbon of PVC irrigation pipe that typically threads the vines is curiously absent here – because Will doesn’t water his crops.

Bucklin’s Old Hill Ranch, purchased by his stepfather Otto Teller in 1980, claims to be the oldest-rooted vineyard in the area. Teller fell in love with the vineyard because it was one of the few that still “dry-farmed”.

California’s attempt to exert tighter control over groundwater use, the purpose of a landmark 2014 state law, was designed to be a compromise between state authority and local oversight.

The tension dogged the writing of the law two years ago, and is playing out again as the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) drafts the regulations that will put the law into practice. The regulations in question are those that the state will use to evaluate groundwater sustainability plans, the 20-year planning documents required of local management agencies by the 2014 law.

The U.S. Drought Monitor released May 5 shows some minor improvement in California drought conditions. But looking ahead to the dry season shows drought persisting for a fifth consecutive year in the Golden State.

In California, some moderate drought was removed in the northern portion of the state. The extreme northwest portion of the state accounts for the 4.27 percent of California where there is no drought. But 96 percent remains abnormally dry, with 89 percent in moderate, 74 percent in severe, 49 percent in extreme and 21 percent in exceptional drought.