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INTRODUCTION Water development has fueled economic development of the West over the last century. Hundreds of large dams and thousands of miles of aqueducts and canals divert water from the West's rivers to sustain urban and agricultural economies. The large-scale development of water in California alone is the foundation fora $1 trillion overall economy and a farm economy with some $18 billion in annual sales. Fish and wildlife, themselves dependent upon water, have paid a heavy price for this development. Water that flowed through rivers and wetlands and eventually out to sea has now been diverted. Land has been converted from wetlands into farmlands. Rivers have been converted into canals. During the 1970s and 1980s, society at large began to put a much higher priority upon protecting remaining environments resources and upon restoring those that had been damaged in the past by water development. For this reason, the large- scale development of new water supplies through traditional means (dams and diversions) has virtually ceased. In some cases, water that was once diverted has been put back into the rivers. At the same time, the population and economies of the West have continued to grow. Ways must be found to provide thf water needed for agriculture and the citie while protecting and restoring the enviro ment. If not, the W'est's economic growth and environmental protection priorities will collide -most likely to the detrimei of both.