Endangered Species and Irrigated Agriculture, Water Resource Competition in Western River Systems

This report characterizes several aspects of water allocation tradeoffs between fish species listed under the Federal Endangered Species Act and agriculture in the American West. The geographic intersection between endangered/threatened (E/T) fish and agricultural production reliant on surface water for irrigation is identified. Three findings are: (1) 235 counties, representing 22 percent of the West\u27s counties, contain irrigated production that relies on water from rivers with E/T fish, (2) areas generating the highest revenues per acre from crop production are those most dependent on surface water irrigation, and (3) these same areas are also most likely to be drawing water from rivers that contain at least one E/T species