New Book by Professor Doremus, Water War in the Klamath Basin

Professor of Law Holly Doremus has just published her most recent book, Water War in the Klamath Basin: Macho Law, Combat Biology, and Dirty Politics (Island Press, 2008). The book, co-written with A. Dan Tarlock, Distinguished Professor of Law at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, undertakes a comprehensive analysis of the historic federal Bureau of Reclamation decision, made after the 2001 drought, to shut down the headgates of the Upper Klamath Basin in southern Oregon to conserve water for endangered species. The episode was the first time in U.S. history that the headgates of a federal irrigation project had ever been closed in favor of conservation. The book examines the protests, vandalism, and apocalyptic rhetoric that greeted the decision, and offers lessons for the future of water management and conservation in the arid West. Professor Doremus is one of the country’s leading scholars of biodiversity protection and the intersection of environmental law and natural science.