Beer, fish and water restoration certificates : a new way to restore rivers in Montana

Abstract

In many places around the U.S. West, water is overallocated, harming not only water quality and native fish but also communities that make a living from river recreation and tourism. In Montana, where irrigation withdrawals leave nearly 3,000 miles of trout streams chronically dewatered, a new type of water deal gave the state’s biggest brewery, also a big water user, a way to put millions of gallons of water back into a long-dry creek to restore native fish while compensating landowners for water they were able to forgo. The deal was sealed by two non-profit organizations and a new kind of entrepreneur: an “eco-asset broker.”