Water Heritage Trust

California Instream Water Transfers Meeting

Redefining Water Rights: The Instream Water Transfers Project

Conservation easements are one of the most powerful, effective tools available for the permanent protection of private lands. Their use over the past forty years has successfully protected millions of acres for the benefit of both humans and wildlife. Yet, these same federal tax laws that provide tremendous incentives for the protection of land have not been extended to the protection of water.

The Resource Renewal Institute sees an opportunity to address this discrepancy. RRI is working to get the IRS to recognize, as tax deductible, the permanent donation of an entire or partial interest of a water right for conservation purposes. Putting such incentives in place would preserve and enhance life-sustaining increments of instream flow throughout the West.

To achieve this, RRI will:

1. Use our leadership and legal expertise to establish a federal tax precedent for the donation of a water right. Appropriative and riparian water rights are legally-recognized real property interests in most every western state. RRI's research has uncovered a handful of permanent water right donations that have received income or estate tax deductions over the past decade. Yet, the IRS has not issued a formal private letter or revenue ruling providing rules or guidelines about these donations. This lack of IRS guidance leaves inhibiting uncertainty and poses a risk that a "bad" case may emerge and generate a negative precedent.

Working with a specialized western network focused on instream water transfers, RRI will establish a favorable IRS precedent for water right donations to forge a new conservation tool for broad use by others. The ability to receive federal tax deductions for water rights donated instream could significantly contribute towards ensuring healthy fish runs and overall water quality, especially in cold-water tributary streams.

2.  Establish a mechanism in California that protects instream flows through water transfers, improved instream flow accounting, and agricultural water conservation. Market-based, voluntary water transactions, including acquiring or leasing water rights, are an increasingly important non-regulatory approach to increase instream flows in working agricultural landscapes. California's maturing water transfers market still needs to improve its instream flow monitoring to ensure all instream water transfers, not just permanent donative transfers, are effectively accounted for and managed.

The Resource Renewal Institute has the leadership, expertise, and experience working with state and federal agencies needed to make this key conservation tool a reality. RRI has already hosted a western regional Permanent Instream Water Transfers Meeting in October 2010 and is now preparing a California Instream Water Transfers Meeting in March 2011. Under RRI's collaborative leadership a broad regional coalition of interested parties with a common stake in instream water transfers will integrate the potential for federal tax deductions into functional state-level water right administrative systems for all transfers. RRI's leadership is poised to move this concept into action and usher in a new era of conservation for both land and water.

Water Heritage Trust is supported by a bequest from the Antonioli family.

Some of Water Heritage Trust's innovative projects:

Salmon Recovery Pilot Program
California’s Sacramento River flows through some of the world’s most productive land while supporting previously bountiful runs of salmon and other important fish species.  WHT is supplying scientific and technical guidance for a unique pilot project to integrate fish habitat restoration, rice crop land and improved water quality.

River Warrior Awards: Honoring Community Stewardship of Rivers and Fish
The River Warrior Awards annually recognize individuals and small organizations whose work is often the reason why a river keeps flowing or powerful water interests are kept honest.  Many individuals and small groups have single-handedly protected entire rivers, species of fish, and pristine watersheds.  Often they receive little compensation for years of dedication and pioneering work to keep our water supplies clean and free-flowing.  The River Warrior Awards, with attending $1,000 cash prizes, are intended to say ‘Thank You’ with no strings attached.

There is no formal application or geographical area of focus for the River Warrior Awards, which are administered based on achievement, word-of-mouth, and open nomination.  Please read about the 2009 award winners here, Stay Tuned for this year’s winners, or nominate a worthy group or individual here.

Butte Creek Salmon: buying water for salmon on California's best salmon stream and selling it to the government to maintain in perpetuity.  Read more about Butte Creek here [http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/26/MNTT10MAQ8.DTL]

For more information on Water Heritage Trust’s activities, please contact Huey Johnson [hdj@rri.org]

90% of Europeans care about environment

When Dutch politicians and business leaders chose to restore their environment within a single generation, they knew that the groundbreaking Green Plan policy would not be enough to bring the public along. A massive public education and outreach campaign flooded Dutch television, radio, and print media with environmental messages.

With the E.U. eventually basing its comprehensive, long-term environmental policy on that of the Netherlands, they too have seen a generational and cultural shift. According to an opinion survey by the European Commission, the environment is an “important personal concern to more than 90% of Europeans.”

The article is a welcome reminder of what’s possible within a generation. Read it here.


 

Current Bay Nature article on salmon and rice

Take a look at the kind of ideas RRI cooks up in the new issue of Bay Nature. This time it’s salmon and rice–before they reach your table. You can check out the article on innovative use of fallow rice fields to support young salmon in the Sacramento River area at Baynature.org


 

 

Missouri River could see flood of “Biblical proportions”

Dr. Shanks’ serious warnings about potential dam failure on the Missouri are reaching hundreds of readers and radio listeners nationwide. Here’s St. Louis’ ownKMOX interview with Dr. Bern Shanks on Missouri River dams

Read the original St. Louis Post Dispatch opinion piece.


 

 

California Parks Commission Set to Reconsider Its Vote to Reclassify Tahoe’s Washoe Meadows State Park

California’s State Parks Commission will meet on January 27 in Brentwood, CA, to “reconsider” its decision last fall to remove vital protections from Washoe Meadows State Park by reclassifying significant portions of parkland. Despite overwhelming public response opposing the move, the Commissioners had voted on October 21 to downgrade some 20 percent of Washoe Meadows in order to move 9 holes of the Lake Tahoe Golf Course into the parkland as part of the Upper Truckee River Restoration Project. The resistance to the EIR’s “Preferred Alternative” that threatens the Park –which had been designated by the State legislature in 1984 as a “unique and rare natural resource” — has been led by the Washoe Meadows Community since the restoration and “golf course reconfiguration” project was first proposed six years ago. The Community’s unflagging work has brought together environmental and conservation agencies, ecologists and park advocates from throughout California. They advocate for river restoration that will not require razing fragile parts of Washoe Meadows that will jeopardize rare fens, imperil Washoe Tribe cultural sites, require the logging of some 1,600 trees, and disrupt wildlife patterns.
In reaction to the Commission’s vote and approval of the project’s EIR, the Washoe Meadows Community in November filed suit against the Park Commission and the State’s Parks Department. Subsequent to the filing of the suit, the “reconsideration” of the October action was added to the Commission’s January agenda.
Defense of Place and the Washoe Meadows Community hope that the Commissioners will re-evaluate accumulated and new information that will lead to a solution to protect Washoe Meadows while allowing for river restoration.
The environmental and legal stakes involved have drawn widespread media interest, including a story broadcast on Reno’s Public Radio station on November 13.
Support the Washoe Meadows Community in its ongoing campaign that resonates with “Place Defenders” everywhere who combat the betrayal of parks and open spaces by powerful government and private entitites.


 

 
 
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