Book excerpt: A River Too Far trakes one of the most important features of the western USA - water - and explores its past, present, and future. In the West's fifth year of drought, river, stream and reservoir levels are at an all-time low. Cities in California, Nevada, Arizona are grappling with water shortages that are becoming more critical every day. many desert cities created an oasis within their communities when water was plentiful, but conditions have now changed significantly. From the wagon trains to the modern subdivision, US westerners have tried to control rather than adapt to their environment A River Too Far offers students of resource and environmental management an authoritative account of resource management in a major area of advanced economic and urban development containing some of the world's most spectacular and fragile wilderness.