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Community Acequias In Colorado's Rio Culebra Watershed: A Customary Commons In The Domain Of Prior Appropriation, Gregory A. Hicks, Devon G. Peña

Articles

This article presents an account of the landscape and water institutions of the acequia communities of Colorado's Rio Culebra watershed. The physical and social landscape of the Culebra watershed, a product of water institutions introduced by Hispano settlers in the years immediately following the Mexican War, and the persistence of those institutions after the introduction of the system of prior appropriation, offers an instance of a successful engagement of community water institutions in the creation of a sustainable and resource-rich watershed landscape. The ultimate goals of this article are threefold. First, the article describes the acequialandscape and its social, …