Building Resilient Water Supplies

Approximately 85% of Idaho’s water supply is used to support agriculture across 3.4 million acres of irrigated cropland. That’s why working towards more resilient water supplies is a key component of TNC’s Healthy Soils, Clean Water initiative, a program that helps Idaho farmers build soil health and reduce water demand through regenerative farming practices. Healthy soil is better able to absorb and retain water, reducing the amount of water needed for (and thereby the cost of) growing crops, while also reducing sediment runoff and pollution in our watersheds.

By implementing more efficient water use and regenerative agriculture practices, farmers can improve the quantity and quality of water in Idaho’s rivers, lakes and aquifers. This in turn provides a more secure future for farmers and their communities and for the land itself.

Water management in the western United States, including Idaho, is based on a historical system of allocation called prior-appropriations that was originally intended to promote agriculture and mining as economic development for newly formed states. This framework has continued through today, but it does not necessarily take into consideration how economic and social priorities have changed over time, for example, by recognizing the value of healthy river systems or the impacts of climate change.

To address these important issues, TNC is pursuing innovative transaction strategies that help ensure that the right amount of water is available where and when it is needed for both humans and nature. Leveraging decades of expertise in land and water conservation, TNC's current projects focus on directing flows to areas that support critical wildlife and habitats in Central and Eastern Idaho.

Effective water conservation requires the coordination of multiple users, organizations and agencies working together on a local scale to achieve watershed-wide impacts. TNC is a member of three water collaboratives across Idaho working to balance the needs of communities, industries and nature: the Wood River Water Collaborative, the Upper Snake River Collaborative and the Southern Idaho Water Quality Coalition.

Together, the stakeholders in these collaboratives focus on improving water management to achieve conservation goals while avoiding conflict between water users. Strategic partnerships like these will continue to be important to building resilient environments and communities as the availability of water where and when it is needed fluctuates in the face of climate change.