Irrigated Eden: The Making of an Agricultural Landscape in the American West (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Book.)

Rating:
Summary: Great reading for genisis of Idaho Snake River Water Use!
Review: Irrigated Eden

In summary water along the Snake River in Idaho is unpredictable, not quantifiable, fickle and limited. Even in the 1920s when there were no uses competing with ariculture it had to be rationed. The surface water, ground water and aquifer commingle freely and as such should be jointly monitored and managed with "honest" diligence. When it comes to the water there is no such thing as partitioned individual water rights anywhere along the Sanke River in Idaho because we are all inextricably woven together in one tub and an action by one entity will affect everyone else in the tub. What one man passes another man drinks.Mark Fiege has done an excellent job of quantifying both the temporal and philosophical circumstances surrounding the acquisition and use of water for agriculture along the Snake River in Idaho up until about 1920. This book is a great place for one to begin to understand the genesis of water acquisition and husbandry for agriculture in Sountern Idaho. The first two thirds of the book and the notes are the best features of the book. The last third tends to drift away into a philosophical stretch without any real conclusions. Mark should now write a book that brings the use of water along the Sanke River in Southern Idaho up to the present time and weave together all of the contemporary competing uses for that water. Based on his research Mark should take the next step and make some recommendations for the future husbandry of our water. Mark has only done the first half of the job because the story is exponentially dynamic and just beginning. Finnish the story.