Patrick Koepele: Water must be shared, opportunities embraced

Re “We must challenge the state’s water grab” (Opinions, Jan 25): The Bee has made a very unfortunate and destructive call to maintain the status quo, circle the wagons and fight to the death against new proposed in-stream flow requirements. The status quo hasn’t worked and will become increasingly untenable in a quickly changing world. Instead, we should be more forward-looking and consider the opportunities that lay before us to create a better future for agriculture and our rivers that will benefit all people.

Instead of digging in to fight protracted trench warfare, there is an opportunity to employ new strategies, technologies and management practices to stretch our natural resources further than we have done historically. With an open dialogue, we can collectively identify solutions that will improve our rivers, parks and neighborhoods while improving our local economy that will make a more vibrant and livable community.

We hope leaders in the region will approach the many important water management planning efforts with a greater enterprising spirit than proposed in the editorial.

This story was originally published January 29, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Patrick Koepele: Water must be shared, opportunities embraced."