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THE RISE OF ENVIRONMENTALISM During the 1960s and 197o.'i public attention shifted 10 em'imnmental changes filar had occurred in California and els('\\'here, sllch as pol/u/ion. Unquestionably, the water projects reduced the frequency of flooding, improved the quantity and quality of water supplies and augmented electric power supplies, But during the 1960s and 1970s public attention shifted to environmental changes that had occurred in California and elsewhere, such as declining wildlife, pollution, urbanization and alter- ations of natural stream flows. Congress responded to these concerns by enacting legislation such as the ESA that gave critics of the water projects some legal ammunition to challenge practices they ciaimed adversely affected wiidlife, For instance, the 1989 designation of Sacramento River winter-run chinook salmon as a threatened species torced both the CVP and SWP to make operational changes in efforts to preserve the winter-fun, whose numbers had dropped sharply in the previous two decades. Perhaps the strongest expression of public concern about the environmental effects of water develop- ment came in 1982 when California voters over. whelmingly rejected a proposal to construct the 42-mile Peripheral Canal to carry Sacramento River water more efficiently around the Delta to CVP and SWP pumping plants near Tracy, Critics said the canal would increase water exports to southern California, to the detriment of Delta fish and wildlife, Proponents called the canal the last link in the SWP system that would improve conditions in the Delta by helping to avoid "reverse flow" conditions during periods of low Deita inflow and high exports, when powerful south Delta pumps actually reverse the natural westward flow of fresh water, drawing water east and south through the estuary, Developments in the 1990s showed just how far environmental restoration had come. Although stake- holders were sharply divided on it, the 1992 CVPIA included an annual $50 million environmental resto- ration fund and dedicated 800,000 acre-feet of annual CVP yield (600,000 acre-feet in dry years) for environmental purposes, inciuding rebuilding depleted valley fisheries, By 1994, however, many of those same stakeholders had joined in the Bay- Delta Accord (which became known as CALFED) to participate in a collaborative effort to find long-term solutions to California's vexing water problems. CALFED for the first time put environmental resto- ration on par with water-supply issues in the search for long-term answers to California's water problems. The courts also have played a role in environmental restoration by enforcing state and federal laws intended to protect water bodies and species. Perhaps the most celebrated and important judicial intervention occurred in Mono Lake, when the California Supreme Court appiied the Public Trust doctrine to the non-navigable tributary creeks of Mono Lake, That 1983 decision resulted in a long- term plan to restore the Mono Lake region, and perhaps more importantly, set a legal precedent that could be applied to seek environmenfal restorafion elsewhere.