Costs, urbanization take toll in the West; conservation still a priority.

The article discusses a case of environmental protection. Six Californians and four Arizonans make up the first decade of Far West recipients of the Cotton Foundation or Farm Press Publications High Cotton Award. Selenium is a naturally occurring soil element, but with continual leaching of the land from irrigation water, high levels of selenium collected in drainage ponds and posed a danger to migrating waterfowl. Rather than challenge environmentalist and wildlife advocates on the issue, two researchers drew accolades from those groups by making the drainage ponds uninviting by design for waterfowl and creating attractive fresh water wetlands for the birds. Mitigating the waterfowl danger, rather than lighting it, proved not only politically correct, but considerably less expensive than going to court.