#Rescue birds in bozeman how to#

Low water levels can lead to increased dust, increased salinity and the spread of invasive species. Yet, as the plight of the Great Salt Lake should remind us, there are many benefits to leaving water instream. Under the “use it or lose it” structure, there is no reason to leave water instream if you’ll be punished for doing so. Leaving a portion of your water instream to flow downriver and into the Great Salt Lake-and provide wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities-is not currently recognized as a beneficial water use, and if you don’t put all your water to a beneficial use, you could lose your right to it.Īs those of us in the West are all too aware, water is a precious commodity. Today, the Utah Division of Water Rights can revoke an owner’s right to water if that water is not put to an approved use, which includes “consumptive” purposes such as irrigation, mining and municipal uses, and you have to prove beneficial use to the agency. People who came after could claim a portion of the remaining water-leading to the popular description of “first in time, first in right.” These rights have been passed down for generations. In general, the first person to use or divert water for a “beneficial use” acquired rights to that water, a system known as the prior appropriation doctrine. As farmers and ranchers settled the West, they withdrew water from streams for crops and livestock. Beneficial use must be reexamined so that water owners are not punished, and could even be rewarded through markets, for leaving water instream to flow into the lake.Ī primary cause of fights over water is that historic rights are based on consumption.

#Rescue birds in bozeman how to#

The Great Salt Lake Advisory Council recently released a report on how to keep the lake from drying up, and its first recommendation is a vital one: amend Utah’s laws governing water use to make conservation a legal use of water. To protect the lake, something has to change. A drastic decline like that matters not only for the fish and wildlife who rely on the water for habitat, but also for the abundant economic activity dependent on the lake. Between drought and upstream use, water levels have dropped 11 feet over the past decade.

This article was originally published in The Salt Lake Tribune.