Throughout the western
U.S. there is increasing recognition that patterns of rural land and water use
are tightly intertwined with a wide range of environmental, economic and
cultural values. In areas such as the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado,
wetlands, flyways and in-stream flows are, at least in part, directly dependent
on systems of irrigated agriculture created over a century ago. Irrigated
agriculture also forms the economic base for an array of Hispanic, Native
American and other cultural groups. Protection of the public goods or
"social and environmental values" associated with such interconnected
systems is difficult, particularly in the rapidly changing demographic and
economic context of the West. Most mechanisms for environmental protection, such
as the Endangered Species Act and wetland provisions of the Clean Water Act,
focus on a very narrow range of highly specific environmental values. In
addition to their confrontational regulatory nature, they are of little utility
for maintaining the much more diffuse and diverse environmental and cultural
features that determine regional characteristics. Furthermore, the laws of some
western states, such as Colorado, contain no provision for the consideration of
public interests in water allocation and management. As a result, there are few
avenues through which communities can effectively protect interlinked
environmental, economic and cultural systems.
During 1998 and 1999, ISET worked with people and organizations in the San Luis Valley of southern Colorado to identify and document the links between the environmental, economic, social, and hydrologic systems of the valley. The objectives of the project were to educate policy makers and the public regarding the impact of water transfers and management on environmental values and the economic base of the San Luis Valley and Upper Rio Grande.
Results of our work point to many opportunities for environmental and water resource enhancement. Agricultural water conservation combined with recharge on center-pivot irrigation corners could enhance habitat and wetlands while also increasing water availability. Institutionally, land and water trusts could be used to protect linked economic and ecological systems. Expanding the role of land and water trusts into mechanisms for regional protection, an idea explored extensively during ISET’s program, has now become a major focus for water conservation activities in the region.