8009

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8009
• Author: Natural Resources Law Center.
• Title: Restoring the Waters.
• USFW Year: 1997.
• USFW - Doc Type: Boulder, CO.
• Copyright Material: YES

What Do We Call "Success"?
The following stories illustrate just a few
of the recent changes that have occurred in
water use and management in the West.
The stories also identify some of the public
and private groups working to conserve,
protect and restore water resources and
some of the techniques they use to help
restore life-giving waters to the environment.
Stories included here as "successes" are
undoubtedly seen by some as failures,
either because they adversely affect the
interests of certain land and water users or
because the strategies did not go far
enough toward conservation, protection
and restoration.
No single strategy illustrated in this
document is adequate to assure that the
West meets the water needs of both people
and the environment. Each technique or
strategy must be seen as a complement -
rather than an alternative - to others.
"Successful" strategies come in many
forms and degrees:
Some strategies -like water rights
transfers (see WATER RIGHT TRANS-
FERS FOR INSTREAM FLOWS), and
land and water purchases (see Ash
Meadows, Nevada) -can assure
that water will be left in a stream or
wetland.
^ Others strategies -like urban and
agricultural water conservation and the
development of water markets -may
be simply the first important step in
finding more water for maintaining our
natural systems (see URBAN WATER
CONSERVATION and AGRICUL-
TURAL WATER CONSERVATION
and Westlands Water District, Califor-
nia). Neither water conservation nor
water trading necessarily yields water
for the environment. But both, at a
minimum, can lead to better use of
water already allocated to out-of-stream
uses. With conservation, new demands
on water for these uses can be mini-
mized while still maintaining a vigorous
western economy.
^ "Successes" may be short-term or only
partial victories in the struggle to
protect the environment. A negotiated
one-year lease of agricultural water
rights for instream flow maintenance
may be only a temporary success from
the perspective of the fish habitat that it
sustains. But that Lease agreement is also
one step in establishing a relationship of
trust between the environmental
community and agricultural interests
that control enormous quantities of
water in the West (see Oregon Water
Trust, Trust Water Rights Program,
Washington and Lahontan Valley
Wetlands, Nevada).
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