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For more than two centuries, humans have collectively and intensively pursued control of water resources throughout the United States. From the arid portions of the southwest region to the relatively water rich east, humans have sought to control the pulses of surface waters, in part to avoid the'elegant destruction'suggested above by Ralph Waldo Emerson. Indeed part of the twentieth century myth of taming nature was to modify basic ecosystem functions for the service of humans. Dams were built in the mighty rivers of the western United States-the Columbia, the Colorado and the Missouri-to control floodwaters and divert scant water resources for human and agricultural consumption. While substantially enhancing a narrow range of services for the benefit of certain sectors of society, such controls have also come at great costs to society-not just in fiscal terms of investment in infrastructure, but also in terms of loss …