California Gov. Jerry Brown ordered cities and towns across the state to cut water use by 25 percent as part of a wide-ranging set of mandatory drought restrictions, the Los Angeles Times reported. His decision marks the first time in California history such rules have been imposed.

Brown announced his executive order in a brown Sierra Nevada meadow that provided an illustration of the state's parched conditions; normally, it would be covered with several feet of snow this time of year, the newspaper explained.

"We're standing on dry grass; we should be standing on five feet of snow," the governor said. "It's a different world. We have to act differently," he added.

Brown's order means that cities must stop watering the median strips that run down the middle of roads, and the state will help local agencies to remove 50 million square feet of grass and replace it with drought-tolerant landscaping, the Los Angeles Times detailed.

Homeowners will benefit from a temporary rebate program aimed at encouraging them to replace old, water-guzzling appliances with high-efficiency options. Golf courses, campuses and cemeteries, meanwhile, have to cut their water use.

"We're in a historic drought, and that demands unprecedented action," Brown summarized, according to The Associated Press. "We have to pull together and save water in every way we can," the governor insisted.

Brown had declared a drought emergency as early as January 2014 and urged Californians to cut water use by 20 percent from the previous year. But overall water use has fallen by just half that amount, promoting the new, mandatory requirements, the AP detailed.

The restrictions – though focused on urban life – will have a major impact on California's agriculture, which accounts for roughly three quarters of California's water usage, Forbes noted.

"Water emergency edicts and voluntary restraints have been in place for some time now," said Jerry Gulke, the president of the Gulke Group, an agribusiness research firm. "But mandatory, across-the-board restriction ... backed by fines is another whole matter," he added.

Critics, meanwhile, alleged that Brown's order said it did not do enough to address agricultural uses: Adam Scow, the director of Food & Water Watch California, called the requirements disappointing.

"The governor must save our groundwater from depletion by directing the state water board to protect groundwater as a public resource," Scow said in a statement.