The American West is defined first and foremost by aridity, scarcity, and variability of water resources. In response to this geographic imperative, the region has evolved a robust menu of legal, institutional, and community-based approaches to managing water and conflicts at local, state, and national levels. While far from perfect, this framework may offer lessons to other regions throughout the world that are increasingly faced with water conflicts due to scarcity and variability of water resources. The resulting menu of approaches reflects an adaptive, collaborative, and nested system of governing water resources.
Steadily increasing emphasis on the aesthetic, environmental, and recreational importance of America's water—particularly in the western states—is calling into question the substance of established water policies. In recent years, courts have tended to recognize and apply the public trust doctrine, which requires government protection of publicly important natural resources. One state, Montana, has undertaken major efforts to integrate public rights into its prior appropriation system by implementing water reservations, facilitating stream access, revising water permit requirements, limiting private appropriation, and controlling state water leasing.
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