TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - A New Era for Irrigation SN - DO - 10.17226/5145 PY - 1996 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/5145/a-new-era-for-irrigation PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Agriculture AB - Irrigated agriculture has played a critical role in the economic and social development of the United States—but it is also at the root of increasing controversy. How can irrigation best make the transition into an era of increasing water scarcity? In A New Era for Irrigation, experts draw important conclusions about whether irrigation can continue to be the nation's most significant water user, what role the federal government should play, and what the irrigation industry must do to adapt to the conditions of the future. A New Era for Irrigation provides data, examples, and insightful commentary on issues such as: Growing competition for water resources. Developments in technology and science. The role of federal subsidies for crops and water. Uncertainties related to American Indian water rights issues. Concern about environmental problems. And more. The committee identifies broad forces of change and reports on how public and private institutions, scientists and technology experts, and individual irrigators have responded. The report includes detailed case studies from the Great Plains, the Pacific Northwest, California, and Florida, in both the agricultural and turfgrass sectors. The cultural transformation brought about by irrigation may be as profound as the transformation of the landscape. The committee examines major facets of this cultural perspective and explores its place in the future. A New Era for Irrigation explains how irrigation emerged in the nineteenth century, how it met the nation's goals in the twentieth century, and what role it might play in the twenty-first century. It will be important to growers, policymakers, regulators, environmentalists, water and soil scientists, water rights claimants, and interested individuals. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council A2 - Alicja Breymeyer A2 - Reginald Noble TI - Biodiversity Conservation in Transboundary Protected Areas SN - DO - 10.17226/5370 PY - 1996 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/5370/biodiversity-conservation-in-transboundary-protected-areas PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Environment and Environmental Studies KW - Biology and Life Sciences AB - Recognizing the increasing rate of species loss on a global scale and that neither pollution nor ecosystems respects political boundaries, cooperation on many different levels is required to conserve biodiversity. This volume uses four protected areas that Poland shares with its neighbors as case studies to explore opportunities to integrate science and management in transboundary protected areas in Central Europe for the conservation of biodiversity. Specific topics include biodiversity conservation theories and strategies, problems of wildlife management, and impacts of tourism and recreational use on protected areas. ER - TY - BOOK AU - National Research Council TI - Upstream: Salmon and Society in the Pacific Northwest SN - DO - 10.17226/4976 PY - 1996 UR - https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/4976/upstream-salmon-and-society-in-the-pacific-northwest PB - The National Academies Press CY - Washington, DC LA - English KW - Agriculture KW - Environment and Environmental Studies AB - The importance of salmon to the Pacific Northwest—economic, recreational, symbolic—is enormous. Generations ago, salmon were abundant from central California through Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to British Columbia and Alaska. Now they have disappeared from about 40 percent of their historical range. The decline in salmon numbers has been lamented for at least 100 years, but the issue has become more widespread and acute recently. The Endangered Species Act has been invoked, federal laws have been passed, and lawsuits have been filed. More than $1 billion has been spent to improve salmon runs—and still the populations decline. In this new volume a committee with diverse expertise explores the complications and conflicts surrounding the salmon problem—starting with available data on the status of salmon populations and an illustrative case study from Washington state's Willapa Bay. The book offers specific recommendations for salmon rehabilitation that take into account the key role played by genetic variability in salmon survival and the urgent need for habitat protection and management of fishing. The committee presents a comprehensive discussion of the salmon problem, with a wealth of informative graphs and charts and the right amount of historical perspective to clarify today's issues, including: Salmon biology and geography—their life's journey from fresh waters to the sea and back again to spawn, and their interaction with ecosystems along the way. The impacts of human activities—grazing, damming, timber, agriculture, and population and economic growth. Included is a case study of Washington state's Elwha River dam removal project. Values, attitudes, and the conflicting desires for short-term economic gain and long-term environmental health. The committee traces the roots of the salmon problem to the extractive philosophy characterizing management of land and water in the West. The impact of hatcheries, which were introduced to build fish stocks but which have actually harmed the genetic variability that wild stocks need to survive. This book offers something for everyone with an interest in the salmon issue—policymakers and regulators in the United States and Canada; environmental scientists; environmental advocates; natural resource managers; commercial, tribal, and recreational fishers; and concerned residents of the Pacific Northwest. ER -