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Chapter II. Water-Present Uses and Future Needs The scarcity of water in much of the arid Pacific Southwest presents grave problems for the agencies concerned with fish and wildlife conservation. Programs to better fish and wildlife environments are severely hampered by lack of water. Because of its scarcity in much of the arid Pacific Southwest, water for fish and wildlife takes on special significance. Its importance and relationships to such resources are sharp and distinct and it is axiomatic to think of these resources in terms of the location, availability, and quality of water. Nonetheless critical, despite seasonal water surpluses in northern California, are the relations of fish and wildlife to water and land in the proposed storage and conveyance areas of California. Thus, the needs of fish and wildlife must be planned for throughout the conveyance route extending from northwest California, through the great Central Valley, through the Tehachapi Mountains into the arid Pacific Southwest. Fortunately, many multiple-purpose projects designed and operated for such purposes as domestic water, irrigation, hydropower generation, flood control, and other uses provide much suitable habitat and hence many fish and wildlife benefits. Many of these benefits, however, can be materially increased by adopting specific measures in the interest of fish and wildlife management. Some of these measures include the establishment of basic conservation (minimum) pools of adequate size, releasing flows at appropriate times, and the opening to fishing of reservoirs presently closed. The restoration of badly depleted streams offers other possibilities, and provisions for public access should be incorporated into project plans wherever possible. The maintenance of fish conservation pools in numerous reservoirs primarily used for other purposes can largely be accomplished by coordinated operation during most years. Storage and withdrawals can be managed to maximize the fishery use of the reservoirs. Extreme drawdowns in critically dry years will still occur in some reservoirs, but even then rough-fish control measures can sometimes be synchronized with these drawdowns to improve the sport fishery. Many forms of wildlife are affected in diverse ways by water-resource development projects. Riparian marshes of value to waterfowl and other water-loving birds often are flooded out as are wintering areas for deer. Drainage, too, sometimes severely alters important wildlife 7 719-078 O-64-12 DEpson Perfection 4870 Photo, 400 dpi, 8 bit, 13,967,360 byte