River Basins of the American West: A High Country News Reader

by Char Miller

Overview

Examining water issues through the lens of major Western U.S. watersheds, River Basins of the American West explores why water has been, and remains, the West's most essential and controversial subject.

Editor Char Miller has organized writings collected from the pages of High Country News, the voice of Western environmental issues, into sections defined by the great watersheds of the West: the Colorado River, the Rio Grande, the Columbia River, the Klamath River, and the Missouri River. Arguably, these drainage systems form the real boundaries of the West, and current water conflicts have their roots in development that ignored this reality.

Contributors to the book-among them activists, scholars, scientists, and some of the nation's finest environmental journalists-probe the intense differences and disagreements over water rights across the West, and present the positive developments toward a lasting solution to the most fraught issue the West faces.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780870715747
Publisher:	Oregon State University Press
Publication date:	10/01/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Char Miller is W. M. Keck Professor of Environmental Analysis at Pomona College. He has written and edited numerous books including Water in the 21st-Century West, Deep in the Heart of San Antonio: Land and Life in South Texas, Gifford Pinchot and the Making of Modern Environmentalism, and Fluid Arguments: Water in the American West. High Country News, whose masthead reads "For People Who Care about the West," is published biweekly in Paonia, Colorado (www.hcn.org).

Table of Contents

I Introduction

Continental Divides Char Miller 9

II Colorado River 17

A River Resurrected Michelle Nijhuis 18

Quenching the Big Thirst Ed Marston 31

It's Time for a New Law of the River Hal Rothman 43

Colorado River States Reach Landmark Agreement Matt Jenkins 46

The Efficiency Paradox Matt Jenkins 49

Charting the Course of the San Pedro Michelle Nijhuis 62

A Thirst for Growth Tony Davis 66

Of Politics and the River John Dougherty 77

III Rio Grande 83

A Tangled Web of Watersheds Michelle Nijhuis 84

A Tiny Fish Cracks New Mexico's Water Establishment Greg Hanscom 87

The Mine that Turned the Red River Blue Ernest Atencio 98

Divided Waters Megan Lardner 108

A River on the Line Greg Hanscom 118

Peace Breaks Out on the Rio Grande Laura Paskus 130

Too Much Can Be Asked of a River Laura Paskus 133

IV Columbia River 135

Holy Water Jim Robbins 136

Troubled-and Shallow-Waters on the West's Largest River Michelle Nijhuis 146

A River Once More Matt Jenkins 149

V Klamath River 163

No Refuge in the Klamath Basin Rebecca Clarren 164

The Message of Thirty Thousand Dead Salmon Katherine Vandemoer 176

"Water Bank" Drags Region Deeper into Debt Rebecca Clarren 179

Peace on the Klamath Matt Jenkins 182

VII Platte River 199

Saving the Platte Ray Ring 200

Truce Holds on the Platte River Andrew Beck Grace 216

VIII Missouri River 219

On the Missouri, the Middle Ground Gets Soggy Peter Carrels 220

Strangling the Last Best River Hal Herring 224

The Last Wild River Alan S. Kesselheim 228

We Can Still Do Right by the Yellowstone Scott Bischke 237

IX Riparian Restoration 241

Catch 22 Joshua Zaffos 242

Reweaving the River Hal Clifford246

"Restoration Cowboy" Goes against the Flow Joshua Zaffos 249

Persistence Frees the Mokelumne Tim Holt 252

Seattle Embarks on a Dramatic Experiment in Restoration David Williams 255

The Hoopa's Fight for a River is a Lesson for Us All Tim Holt 258

River Redux Matt Jenkins 261

Border Restoration's Odd Couple Morgan Heim 265

A River Sacrificed Gisela Telis 268

Riparian Restoration Guru James R. Kristofic 274

Riparian Repair Cleo Woelflie-Erskine 277

Acknowledgements 283

Index 284