FALLBROOK -- Officials said last week that they hope a free workshop on residential water conservation on Saturday morning will help local residents understand the need for continued water-saving measures, despite heavy rainfall over the last month.

"When you're driving down the road and there are rivers of water everywhere, it's hard to imagine we're in a drought," said Justin Haessly, a water conservation specialist with the Mission Resource Conservation District in Fallbrook. "But the vast majority of rain that falls is not contained or caught -- it flows out into the ocean. So rain here doesn't necessarily mean more water here."

Haessly said the workshop will focus on technology such as high-efficiency sprinkler nozzles and "smart" irrigation timers that receive weather updates.

The workshop, which will be held at the Fallbrook Public Utility District, 990 E. Mission Road, goes from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Haessly said there will also be native plant specialists and a synthetic turf company on hand to discuss ways of landscaping that require less water than traditional lawns and shrubs.

The idea of renovating local yards with water-saving devices and plants "is just catching on now in Fallbrook," he said.

"If I had to take a guess, I'd say there are 15 to 20 people in Fallbrook who have gone this route," he said.

The resource conservation district provides training on how to keep yards looking nice without wasting water year-round, but Haessly said wet winters often give local residents the impression that the need to conserve water has passed.

"As soon as it starts raining, the requests for our services pretty much plummet," he said. "Then when we perform visits, people will say things like, 'Why do I need to conserve water? It's raining.'"

North County gets almost all of its water from Northern California, where water exports have dwindled due to a court ruling in 2007 meant to protect an endangered fish, and the Colorado River, which is still undergoing a severe drought, officials have said.

The district can be reached at (760) 728-1332 or online at www.missionrcd.org.

Contact staff writer Tom Pfingsten at (760) 740-3516 or tpfingsten@nctimes.com.