In the arid West, water has always been scarce. To limit wars over this lifeblood, states during the 19th-century mining era began issuing to some of their landowners legal entitlements to a share of the water flowing through rivers and lakes. Called water rights, these formal entitlements now pass down, with the land, from owner to owner as a form of property.
Government control of stream flows for the sake of these coho salmon fingerlings and other fish is fueling clashes between state water laws and the Endangered Species Act. R. Heims/ Army Corps of EngineersThe south fork of the Walla Walla River is among
the areas where the Oregon Water Trust is negotiating to buy water rights so that it can protect denizens of streams.
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