U.S. Forest Service water management: Limited oversight of diversions
While the U.S. Forest Service pours resources into a runaway battle on wildfire, it is losing the war over water. About half of Western water supply originates on national forest land. But before that water reaches the West’s major cities or great rivers, much of it has already been claimed. Thousands of farmers, ranchers, cities, housing developments and industrial users pump water from the ground, channel it away from streams into ditches or pipelines, and hold it back in ponds and reservoirs — all to use public water, often for private purposes.