Transcript

David Getches: If you don't solve this problem, someone from Washington will!

I think what you are getting at is why people would come to the table and stay there. I agree with everything that's been said that these things are working around the west. There are, at last count, several hundred of these local watershed efforts and many of them are producing results. Why did people come to the table? In some cases they came to the table because their town wouldn't have enough water for a growing population. In some cases, they are there because the water is polluted and makes it a city in which it's difficult to do business. They might want to promote tourism or they may be fishermen or biologists or Indian tribes that have a stake in making sure that there is adequate water in the stream. What convenes them? One of the rather unpleasant facts here is that they are often there because there is some requirement of law that says, If you don't solve this problem, somebody from Washington will! I think that it shouldn't go without saying that necessary to motivate people to begin realizing and solving their problems is often a stick. Other times it is a carrot, but that's played an essential role in these watershed efforts.

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