Action Programs for Water Yield Improvement on Arizona's Watersheds: Political Constrains to Implementation

Abstract

Although the Arizona Watershed Program 's (AWP) research efforts have had considerable success over the past 22 years in its objective to further knowledge of the feasibility of vegetative manipulation and modification as a method of increasing surface water yields, its principal sponsor and supporter, the Arizona Water Resources (AWRC), has not, to date, met with similar success. Described are three of the AWRC 's unsuccessful attempts to implement on-going action programs of vegetative management for water yield improvement: The Barr Report, the Ffolliott-Thorud Report, and the Globe Chaparral controversy, to illustrate how overstated program goals, unrealistic assumptions about the political feasibility of treatment types, extent, and intensity; failure to recognize the emergence of significant new decision-making participants, and unsettled questions concerning program costs and beneficiaries have contributed to setbacks in these programs. It is suggested that political as well as scientific constraints have accounted for reported failures in the implementation of the AWP action program objectives.