Page 8

Chapter II. Present Water Uses In the arid Pacific Southwest, water takes on special significance for fish and wildlife. Its importance and relationships are sharp and distinct and it is axiomatic to think of these resources in terms of the location of water and its availability. With fish and wildlife alike, the lack of water restricts the range of many species and imposes severe limitations on the development and expansion of the environments in which they live. Understandably, the lack of water presents grave problems for the agencies concerned with fish and wildlife conservation. Often severely limited in developing fishing waters and wildlife refuges and management areas simply by the lack of adequate water, the fish and wildlife agencies are taking every advantage for improving the suitable areas that now exist. For it is these areas, the foci of faunal life and of recreational interest in the arid Pacific Southwest, that will become even more important as the human population continues to expand. Fortunately, many multiple-purpose projects designed and operated for such purposes as domestic water, irrigation, hydropower generation, flood control, and other primary uses provide much suitable habitat and hence many direct and indirect fish and wildlife benefits. Except for the raising of agricultural crops to feed wildlife on refuges and management areas, and the evapo-transpiration losses on ponds of such areas and the similar losses on fishing lakes, there is little consumptive use of water by the installations designed around bettering the environment for fish and wildlife. To be sure, fish hatcheries need firm supplies of water of the right quantity, quality, and temperature but the amounts so needed while important are relatively negligible in quantity and in the main, non-consumptive. As for the aggregate amount of water currently used on all installations, the total is low and does not reflect the role and importance of fish and wildlife resources to the economy of the Pacific Southwest. A brief outline of the present water supplies and uses made of them is presented below. 8Epson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 16,023,552 byte