Brief Summary of Minutes of Annual Meeting

Minutes of W2190 Meeting Submitted by Karina Schoengold October 17-19, 2012 Riverside, California This is the fourth annual meeting of W2190, held on October 17-19, 2012. Officers for the past year: Chair  Dannele Peck, Wyoming; Vice-Chair  Kristi Hansen, Wyoming; Secretary  Karina Schoengold, Nebraska October 17, 2012: Free Public Symposium Water Policy in the West 4:00-6:00 pm Sponsored by the Water Science and Policy Center at the University of California, Riverside. Presentations: 1) U.S. Irrigated Agriculture: Trends and Challenges in the Face of Emerging Demands Presenter: Glenn Schaible (USDA  Economic Research Service) 2) Texas State 50-year Water Plans and Policies Presenter: Ari Michelsen (Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center) 3) Managing Californias Water: From Conflict to Reconciliation Presenter: Ellen Hanak (Public Policy Institute of California) Public session participants: Approximately 50 people attended the session. In addition to the W2190 members those attending included individuals associated with the following groups: University of California, Riverside Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority Western Riverside Council of Governments University of Nevada, Las Vegas Kallisto Greenhouses Western Municipal Water District USDA -US Salinity Laboratory Jurupa Community Services District October 18, 2012, Morning Session 8:30-9:00 AM: Introductions: Everyone in the group introduced themselves and Ariel welcomed us to the University of California-Riverside. Dannele reviewed the midterm NIMSS review of the W2190 project. Most of the review was very positive and noted the high activity with grants and excellent publication record for the group. The reviewers did challenge the members of the group to do a better job of developing collaboration with multistate projects. A discussion followed about the possible topics and mechanisms that the group could use to develop and show greater collaboration. One difficulty in developing multistate projects is that the funding for W2190 covers the cost of the group meeting but does not provide enough funding for larger projects. However, there are some topics that are common themes across the different states. For example: groundwater management, rule curves. A unified discussion of drought may be a good topic to focus on for many of the states in the group. Another possibility is to put together a special issue of a journal. Dannele Peck and Jeff Peterson are associate editors of the Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research. A special issue with submissions from many of the members of W2190 is a good way to provide joint impact (see next item for more details). Other ideas included organizing session(s) at UCOWR, the Water for Food conference at the University of Nebraska, the World Water Forum, or another venue. This would allow us to bring together outcomes from our individual work. This needs to be with groups other than professional economics association meetings to have a broad impact. The midterm NIMSS review also suggested that the members of the group could do a better job of connecting with stakeholders. The fact that many group members do outreach work with stakeholders that is not reported on the form was raised. We need to do a better job of highlighting our connections and interactions with stakeholders. The public forum the previous night was an excellent example of reaching out to stakeholders. J. Peterson and D. Peck: discussion of special issue for JNRPR. Dr. Chennat Gopalakrishnan (Gopal) is a long time W2190 member and the Chief Editor of the Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research. The journal is intended for a multidisciplinary social science audience. Dannele is an Associate Editor and Jeff is the Book Review Editor. Gopal approached Jeff and Dannele about putting together a special issue on water resource related policy analysis. Jeff discussed a possible theme of Climate Change, Water, and Agriculture (can negotiate this). This will be a short turnaround  manuscripts need to be submitted by January 2013 with a final publication date in mid-late 2013. The goal is to have 6-8 manuscripts of 6000-8000 words each. Discussion of next proposal for the group: We have two more years on the current project but we will need to start preparing next year. Rogers Leonard mentioned that the approval process is taking longer than it used to which means that the standard 12 months may not be sufficient and we should plan for 18 months for the development of the proposal and the approval process. K. Hansen reminded the group that last year we agreed to put together an ad-hoc group to help put together the new proposal. The group discussed the fact that next years meeting will have a primary goal of defining the main goals for the new project. A. Michelsen suggested that it is important to have at least one non-economist on the ad-hoc group. Concerns were raised about the reporting requirements by NIFA and how those limit reports. R. Leonard mentioned that including Louisiana can add to the depth of expertise and work in the group by addressing more water policies across the U.S. For the next proposal the group might want to consider changing the name to include all water and not just western water. Despite concerns mentioned by group members, Rogers reiterated that reporting requirements by NIFA (including proposal limitations) cannot be changed. However, there are online presentations that help describe how to report impacts and outcomes. Dannele reminded us to keep the goal of developing collaborations in mind for the rest of the meeting. Some ideas that were suggested during the meeting include the following: Grant Cardon suggested a special issue on case studies on the successful adoption of better practices/technologies. Another idea is a general myths article on common myths related to water. Grant did this in Colorado and Richard and others have done this in California (California has an excellent website with the information). There was some discussion about the connection many of the participating states have with the Colorado River. One idea is to develop an integrated product for the river. Ari asked if international participants (Mexico) are allowed with the USDA project and Rogers confirmed that anyone can be included. 9:00 am: State Reports (see below for details). 10:00 am: Break in the state reports for a short presentation by Karina Schoengold about a new project to develop a groundwater trading market in the Republican River Basin in Nebraska. The project involves three W2190 members (Schoengold - Nebraska, Brozovic - Illinois, and Speir - NMFS) 10:30 am: State Reports continued. 12:00 pm: Lunch October 18, 2012, Afternoon Session 1:00-6:00 pm: Organized field trip to the Coachella Valley near the Salton Sea. We visited the Prime Time office where we learned about the development of irrigation and agricultural production in the region. We visited several fields with the owner of Prime Time and saw a large field of bell peppers that is irrigated solely with groundwater. We also saw several fields of date trees and a large field of irrigated lettuce. Most of the irrigation in the area is surface water stored in small ponds before being distributed through the irrigation system to the crops. October 19, 2012, Morning Session 8:30 AM: D. Peck and J. Peterson reminded the group of the possibility of a special issue of the JNRPR. J. Peterson said that several members have discussed papers that could be included and he and Dannele will be in touch with more details soon. 8:45 AM: Glenn Schaible presented an overview of the new Farm and Ranch Irrigation Survey (FRIS). The FRIS instrument is being revised for the 2013 year. Previous years had separated horticulture and irrigator surveys. The new survey is longer but has combined the two groups so that the number of questions specific to irrigators has been reduced. Glenn distributed copies of the 2008 FRIS and a document highlighting the differences in the 2008 and 2013 surveys. Richard Howitt asked why the survey doesnt collect information on inputs other than irrigation. Having only partial information makes it impossible to estimate an irrigated production function. Glenn said that he will add our group to the suggested review group for the survey instrument. 9:00 AM: Identification of meeting location and date for next year. Grant Cardon has offered to host the 2013 meeting in Salt Lake City. There are a number of issues that can be highlighted during the meeting. Rural/urban transfers and conflicts over water, various types of irrigated agricultural production, and general issues of water transfers are all important issues in Utah. Ari Michelsen suggested including a trip to the Utah State water lab as part of the meeting. Dannele Peck mentioned that having a stakeholder/outreach session would be a good idea. Everyone agreed that the public meeting Ariel Dinar organized at UC-Riverside was very good. Glenn Schaible mentioned that mid-October can be difficult for travel for federal employees to travel due to year-end budget issues. Dannele proposed that we hold the meeting on October 23-25, 2013 in Salt Lake City. Karina agreed to send out an email about the date to ensure there arent any major conflicts. Incoming Secretary: Dannele Peck motioned and Karina Schoengold seconded naming Aaron Benson as the incoming secretary for the group. The group unanimously approved the motion. Ad-hoc committee for the next multi-state proposal: Grant Cardon, Dannele Peck, Ariel Dinar, and Glenn Schaible agreed to serve on the ad-hoc committee to start putting together ideas for the next proposal. Glenn cannot fly anywhere to meet but will work electronically with the group. Garth Taylor mentioned that Glenns input will be valuable with his insight from working with ERS-USDA. Karina Schoengold suggested that Frank Ward might provide valuable assistance and agreed to contact him about participating in the committee. 9:30 AM: State reports continued. 10:30 AM: Presentation by Richard Howitt and Ari Michelsen on Advances in Hydro-Economic Modeling and Policy Applications joint with James Booker and Robert Young. 12:00 PM: Lunch and meeting officially adjourned. Information discussion followed. State reports: California: On June 16-19th (2014) UC-Riverside is going to host an international conference on salinity. It will bring together people from industry, farmer organizations, economists, and a variety of stakeholder groups. Ariel Dinar discussed two goals for his research group at UCR. First, they are developing state/federal/international work on wastewater. There is a need for more collaboration and a greater emphasis on the importance of this issue. Second, they are developing an economy-wide model where water is the driving force that connects between the different sectors. The goal of the work is to make the model flexible enough to allow researchers to examine shocks via different water policies at different levels. There are several projects of relevance to the group: First, Ariel Dinar and colleagues are working with the avocado industry to understand how farmers respond to droughts, water supply cutbacks, and poor water quality. They are conducting a survey of 6000 avocado growers (70,000 acres). Some of the responses indicate that using portable desalination facilities and cutting the trees down are possible options. They have submitted a grant to develop decision support tools to help the growers deal with these problems. Second, Ariel is working on experimental economics work with groundwater management. Finally, Ariel is working with a graduate student on the decoupling of the electricity subsidy for groundwater with water use in Mexico. The Mexican government has tried to decouple the payments and it has not been successful. Colorado: Chris Goemans reported that Colorado is working on a state-wide water management plan. Planning started in 2003 and the state realized that different areas were all planning on using the same sources for long-term water supply. Plans currently use a similar system as Texas to estimate water demand. They estimate that total water use = per capita use * population with no impact considered for pricing or conservation. There has been a lot of time spent estimating the impacts of the 2011-2012 drought using a producer survey. Chris is working on sending a second year of the survey out to producers. Stephan Kroll announced that the Agricultural Economics department is searching for a new Assistant Professor of Natural resource economics and has funding for generous stipends for five new PhD students. Mark Eisworth reported that since 2003 there has been a lot of discussion within the state and attempts to coordinate people at different institutions who are all working on water issues. Mark reported that he was recently at Colorado College for a presentation on managing the Colorado River Basin. Undergraduate students recently put together a video where they followed the river from the headwaters to the end (spending as much time on the water as possible). Mark suggested that this could be a model for the W2190 group. We could develop a video where we look at the Colorado River Basin (or another basin) and have interviews with experts (i.e., group members) along the river basin. Ari Michelsen mentioned that a scholarship and lecture series have been established to honor Bob Young at Colorado State University. Idaho: Garth Taylor is working on groundwater externalities. The Bureau of Reclamation is interested in a basin wide benefit cost analysis. Garth is working with someone to use CGE modeling to measure impacts and benefits of changing river management policies. He recently presented a paper that showed that irrigation conservation has led to an increase of 15-30% more water use in the Snake River Plain. Idaho is also having problems with the financial costs of sewage treatment. Many small cities, towns, and communities are bankrupted from purchasing new facilities. They are constrained by law and small communities are not able to take advantage of the huge economies of scale that exist with treatment facilities. Idaho has the only county that has actually gone bankrupt from these costs and some places have a cost of $4000-$5000 per household per year. Chris Goemans mentioned that the Western Governors Association did a report and found a large estimate for the costs of necessary new infrastructure. Ari Michelsen mentioned that cutbacks in revolving funds will only make the situation worse. Kansas: Jeff Peterson is also reporting for Bill Golden. Bill has been working closely with policy changes related to water law and rights in Kansas. Garth Taylor mentioned that there is a good article on Bill Golden in Circle of Blue. Governor Sam Brownbeck has made groundwater conservation a priority. There used to be a use it or lose it clause for groundwater rights that has been removed to encourage conservation. Kansas has also introduced a five-year flexible plan (water rights are allocated over a 5-year period) which makes it easier to create water banks. Producers can deposit unused allocation into a water bank. A program that buys out water rights from farmers has been expanded. Jeff Peterson and Nathan Hendricks wrote a paper on groundwater irrigation demand. They compared water reduction policies and found that it was much more expensive to fully buy out water rights than to allow trading or to buy out marginal water use from more irrigators. Jeff has also been studying the incentives to participate in conservation programs like EQIP. Producers werent signing up for the program because of the difficulty in the process. Jeff has been doing experimental work to measure the willingness to join the program and the additional payment that producers demand for the transaction costs involved with joining the program. Louisiana: Rogers Leonard is a new member of the group. Louisiana has fewer problems than in much of the western United States. It has 40  60 inches of precipitation per year but there is high variation and much of it comes in a few events. The issues of greatest importance for the state are wetlands protection, seafood production (aquaculture), and coastal restoration. Much of the work is on salt water, not fresh water. Other researchers working on water issues in Louisiana include John Westra (hypoxia in the Gulf Coast), Rex Caffey (CNREP), Bill Branch, Ronald Sheffield, and Brian LeBlanc. Louisiana is trying to put together a state water plan that incorporates groundwater/surface water interactions into water management. Some of the aquifers are suffering from overuse. The majority of groundwater for irrigation is used for rice but the petrochemical industry uses the majority of the water. There are issues on the west side of the state with Texas but overall there is more of a problem with water quality management than water quantity. Other problems include saltwater intrusion. LSU is retooling one of the research centers in the state to focus on fresh water resources. Researchers are participating in regional projects with Arkansas and Mississippi. Texas: Aaron Benson has two relevant projects. One is a model of reservoir management to determine the effects of early snowmelt due to climate change predictions. Other work has examined this change by assuming some additional cost but not actually estimating an associated change in cost due to early snowmelt and increased dust in the snow (water quality issue). The second project is work with a graduate student to estimate values of ecosystem services from playa lakes. They are trying to estimate if playa lakes near a well affect the drawdown. If they do, it should benefit the well. Estimates show that there are benefits but they are small. Other ecosystem benefits such as providing habitat along a major flyway are probably the most important ecosystem service but are difficult to measure. Groundwater districts in Texas are charged with setting a goal for the future. Districts want to see a minimum of 50% of water remaining in 50 years but the Texas courts have said that the districts cannot restrict use without reimbursement. Ari Michelsen is reporting for the team (Girisha Ganjegunte, Thomas Marek, Ron Lacewell, Ari Michelsen). Girisha has been working on the salt tolerance of different crops. He is collaborating with Grant Cardon on some of this work. They are also evaluating water markets in the Lower/Middle Rio Grande. They are also working with the Upper Rio Grande to help manage water salinity. Ari is working on the organizational side of several conferences. The AWRA in Jacksonville, Florida will focus on IWRM. UCOWR is meeting in June 2013 in Tahoe. Finally Ari is on the organizing committee for a US-China conference in Beijing in September 2013. The focus on the conference is Water and Megacities. Ari has been working on a multistate project with Richard Howitt, James Booker, and Bob Young. Some of the work was presented in the morning session. He has also been working on the energy-water nexus. He gave a presentation on the importance of energy for water and water for energy at UT-Austin recently. A report on the importance of water in the US economy should be out early next year. There will be a session in Washington D.C. on the findings in the report. The work involved many federal and state agencies as partners. Ari announced that the Texas A&M AgriLife (El Paso) Station has received approval to hire an Assistant or Associate Professor in water resource economics. Texas A&M is also planning to expand its role in water research. Utah: Grant Cardon said that he is much more of a soils generalist at USU than he was at Colorado State. Salinity problems have gotten bad very quickly in places with a closed basin in an arid climate. Utah received some earmark money to work on drought issues. Researchers have been examining both quantity and quality issues related to drought (e.g., salinity). They are working on mapping and evaluating the use of spatial information to measure reduced quantity and quality by location. Grant is also working on the water-energy nexus. He is working with larger coal fired power plants to determine what to do with cooling tower water. The water is too saline to be evaporated and needs to be flushed out but then there is a problem in dealing with saline wastewater. An early idea was to use a managed accumulation process for saline water that still allows it to be used for irrigation. Dannele mentioned that there is some interest in using the water from coal bed methane for irrigation but there are concerns over the long-term effects on soil quality and a need to manage the accumulation. Ari mentioned that Girisha has also been working on this in Texas. Grant is also working on a project to get more water efficient native plants into landscaping and to identify which plants are most saline tolerant. He is working with an urban water research center than communicates with consumers and landscaping businesses to educate them on incorporating these plants into landscaping. He is also working with water management in Lebanon on a project that is working to improve practices and teach local people to manage the river system. Wyoming: Kristi Hansen is working on a couple of projects. A new MS student is interested in examining how the Bureau of Reclamation manages reservoirs on the Platte River. Kristi is working on developing a payment for ecosystem services program in SW Wyoming where energy (fracking) companies can pay landowners for wildlife habitat. Kristi and Dannele Peck are working on a project with coal bed methane. The project is examining whether water quality markets could alleviate some of the problems with providing good water quality downstream. Kristi is also involved with two new large EPSCOR grants. One is to purchase fast computing power. The other is to develop a research program linking surface/subsurface watershed hydrology, geophysics, remote sensing, and computational modeling. This will facilitate policy analysis on Wyoming water issues. For example, an issue that could be addressed is measuring the economic impact if there is curtailment in the upper Colorado basin states. The work is being done with Utah State (David Rosenberg). Ari mentioned that its important to work with Matt McKee and the Utah Water Lab. Ariel mentioned that Kurt Schwabe and Ken Baerenklau are working on water supply reliability and reservoir management with the manager of the Santa Ana River Basin.

W2190 Objective 1. Develop farm-level irrigation strategies to address water quantity and quality problems. In New Mexico, researchers have estimated economic values of water in irrigated agriculture under a range of crop prices, crop costs, drip irrigation subsidies, and climate scenarios. New Mexico researchers are also cooperating with the U.S. Geological survey to identify irrigation institutions that promote food security and farm income in Iraq and Afghanistan. Members in Texas are doing research on the salt tolerance of five bioenergy crops and their performance under elevated salinity conditions. They also continue to use Electromagnetic Induction (EMI) to determine the spatial distribution of salinity in affected fields. This research is being carried out in collaboration with B. Leinauer at New Mexico State University, G. Cardon at Utah State University (fellow W2190 member), and local growers. Objective 2: Examine regional water-related impacts associated with energy, environmental policy, and climate change. In Arizona, researchers developed a framework for analyzing the economics of advanced remote sensing techniques to measure and monitor water "savings" in irrigation forbearance agreements. In California, A. Dinar organized the Southern California Groundwater & Climate Workshop: Sustainability and Resilience of the Southern California Groundwater. The workshop was held on February 22, 2012 at UC-Riverside and there were 120 participants. California researchers have also completed lab experiments on common pool resource management under uncertainty. In conjunction with the Colorado Water Conservation Board and Colorado Department of Agriculture, Colorado researchers conducted a survey of agricultural producers regarding impacts of the 2011 regional drought. Members also developed a model of Colorado agriculture and used it to model impacts of the 2011 drought on Colorado producers. N. Brozovic-U of Illinois, C. Speir-National Marine Fisheries Service and a student analyzed streamflow and habitat impacts of seasonal agricultural groundwater pumping in California. Demand for irrigation groundwater in the Kansas High Plains was estimated using panel data. The cost effectiveness of water conservation policies was then simulated. Kansas members used a theoretical model of common pool groundwater use to examine the effect of irrigated farm size, which implies a greater spatial extent of access to aquifer resources. Michigan members developed a suite of maps and interactive modeling outputs for Coca-Cola and The Nature Conservancy showing optimal locations for protection and improvement of water quantity and quality. A web-accessible Water Withdrawal Assessment Tool to manage high capacity (>70 gal/min) withdrawals was programmed by IWR. All new wells capacity and location are registered. Michigan also produced a webinar "A Sustainable Approach to Water Resources and Climate Change Planning." It identifies relevant challenges and provides recommendations on how to address these challenges. Missouri researchers received a grant from the NIFA Integrated Water Quality program ($414,000) to look at adoption of nutrient and stormwater runoff management practices (e.g. rain barrels) in Hinkson Creek, Missouri. In Nebraska, K. Schoengold, Y. Ding, and R. Headlee are evaluating whether ad-hoc disaster payments create a moral hazard problem, in which producers are less likely to self-manage risk after receiving payment in recent years. K. Schoengold and other colleagues at Nebraska are also evaluating the value of the High Plains aquifer (including option value) to determine optimal resource extraction under price and climate uncertainty. R. Hearne developed a cost minimization model for recycling and transporting wastewater from North Dakota oil drilling wells. In New Mexico, B. Hurd completed a survey of acequia members on perceptions and issues related to water use, community challenges and adaptation to drought and population change stressors. Results were published in both a report and a publication. B. Hurd also extended the Rio Grande Hydro-economic model to examine crop-mix effects under scenarios of climate change. This work was Mani Rouhi-Rads MS thesis project. Researchers from Texas examined the impacts of biofuel crop production on water quality and shared the results at the Universities Council on Water Resources meeting. A. Michelsen from Texas was an invited participant, along with other W-2190 members (Howitt, Young), in the USEPA Workshop on The Importance of Water to the US Economy. At the USDA-ERS, G. Schaible examined the challenge for agricultural water conservation in the face of increasing water scarcity due to emerging water demands and expected impacts from climate change. Results were communicated to the federal water conservation policy arena through the new USDA-ERS website for "Irrigation and Water Use." G. Schaibles research on "The Value of U.S. Irrigated Agriculture" helped advance the U.S. EPA water program and its forthcoming report addressing "The Importance of Water to the U.S. Economy. The 2011 Washington State Legislative Report: "Columbia River Basin Long-Term Water Supply and Demand Forecast was completed and submitted to Washington State Department of Ecology. Researchers also initiated the Watershed Integrated Systems Dynamics Modeling (WISDM) project and the BioEarth: Regional Earth Systems Modeling project (see http://www.cereo.wsu.edu/wisdm/ and http://www.cereo.wsu.edu/bioearth/). In Wyoming, D. Peck received an Editors Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for Water Resources Research (2011) for reviewing two manuscripts directly related to W2190's objectives 2 & 3. Farm Foundation President, Neil Conklin, also asked Peck for insights about Climate change impacts on agriculture when future scenarios are uncertain" for a Canadian Agricultural Policy Conference. Objective 3: Investigate Alternative Water Policy and Management Institutions. B. Colby and colleagues are finalizing a new statistical model explaining variation in three measures of water transaction activity over time, covering most of the western United States. Arizona members have produced six stakeholder guidebooks on effective voluntary transactions between agriculture, municipalities and environmental programs as regional adaptation strategy. A. Dinar is continuing to provide input to a groundwater assessment study by Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Researchers in Colorado have conducted experiments to examine the impact on residential water demand of alternative pricing structures and information about their households water use. In Idaho, G. Taylor presented research on The Impact of Irrigated Agriculture on the Rule Curve to the Mid-Snake Water Management and Planning Board. Rule curves are a method by which the Army Corp of Engineers and BOR govern reservoir pools for flood control. G. Taylor has also conducted a cost-benefit of alternative management responses to hydrologic externalities. N. Brozovic and other Illinois researchers in agricultural economics, civil engineering and sociology modeled the economic and environmental consequences of groundwater management policies in Nebraska. J. Peterson and Kansas colleagues estimated a mixed logit model from stated preference data on payments for environmental service contracts. The model estimated the aggregate impacts of transaction costs. Michigan researchers are contributing to work on water quality and nonpoint source pollution. The project is documenting: a) social/economic/political factors contributing to water quality impairments; b) role of social movements and WQ; c) social strategies for better WQ management. L. McCann supervised an MS thesis at Missouri on behavioral economics and toilet use. The research resulted in a presentation and a paper. K. Schoengold (Nebraska), N. Brozovic (Illinois), and a graduate student are examining existing groundwater trading in the Upper Republican Natural Resource District. Short term impacts will show if trading behavior can be predicted using hydrological characteristics of the aquifer, well and soil characteristics, and input/output prices. K. Schoengold and W2190 members Brozovic and Speir are implementing a pilot groundwater trading program in Nebraska, which should provide financial benefit and reduce weather risk to producers. In North Dakota, B. Hearne assessed transboundary water management institutions to address US and Canadian conflict related to the Devils Lake outlet to Sheyenne River and Lake Winnipeg Basin. He also assessed the impacts of growth and environmental policy on water quality in Korean rivers. In New Mexico, F. Ward has analyzed economic, hydrologic, and food security impacts of alternative methods of allocating river and canal waters during drought periods for Afghanistan and Iraq. Texas members provided reviews and inputs to the update of the 50 year State Water Plan for the Far West Texas Regional Planning Group. A. Michelsen (Texas) worked with fellow W2190 members (J. Booker,Siena College; R. Howitt, UC Davis; R. Young, Colorado State) on a 25-year review and future directions in research on the economics and modeling of water resources and policies. A. Michelsen also organized ten international sessions on Integrated Water Resources Management for the 6th World Water Forum. At USDA-ERS, G. Schaible wrote EIB # 99, addressing "Water Conservation in Irrigated Agriculture." It outlines the challenge for agricultural water conservation from on farm and watershed/institutional perspectives. The document was an output of the USDA REE 2012 Action Plan, assisting REE in meeting USDA's mission goals for "Water Availability and Quality." In Wyoming, D. Peck, Associate Editor for Journal of Natural Resources Policy Research (Editor, C. Gopalakrishnan, retired W2190 member), coordinated the review of 3 water/climate manuscripts. K. Hansen is leading a project to scope ecosystem services markets for wildlife/riparian habitat/water in the upper Green River Basin in collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund who is piloting a habitat credit trading market.

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