California Dowsin': Fact, Folklore, or Freedom of Speech?

摘要

CALIFORNIA IS FAMOUS BOTH FOR ITS INNOVATIVE groundwater institutions and for its water folklore. The germinal work on governing the commons, Elinor Ostrom's 1965 UCLA Ph.D. dissertation, “Public Entrepreneurship: A Case Study in Ground Water Basin Management,” served as the foundation for the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014. Yet Californians also have a rich history in water dowsing—a way of searching for underground water by observing the movement of a forked stick, a pair of bent wires, or a pendulum. According to the American Society of Dowsers, California has the largest number of active chapters: 1. Gold Country Dowsers.