Walker Lake, one of 3 endorheic lakes in the western United States, at one time supported an and essential fishery and ecosystem for the Walker River Paiute tribe and the regional tourist economy. Rare terminal lakes have no outflow, and lake levels are a balance between inflow and evaporation. The Walker River flows more than 100 miles, west to east, to get to Walker Lake. The Walker begins high in the Sierra Nevada in California and passes through what has become one of Nevada’s most productive agricultural regions. Agriculture in the Walker River watershed owes its existence to diversions of Walker River water, and as a result, the river has been over-appropriated for more than 100 years. One hundred twenty-five years ago, the level of Walker Lake was more than 150 feet higher than it is today. More than 500 water rights holders along the Walker river and a series of reservoirs have deprived Walker Lake of inflow since the turn of the last century, and the lake has died by degrees while the region’s agricultural industry has thrived. A massive population of giant Lahontan cutthroat trout would swim from the lake up into the Walker River to spawn every spring. The number of trout was large and robust enough to support a commercial fishing operation and the Walker River Paiute tribe, but those days are long gone. The reflection of nearby Mount Grant in lake water is as striking as ever, but in 2020, Walker Lake is a saline puddle by contrast to its former state. According to river flow data from the United States Geological Survey, there is currently almost no water flowing into Walker Lake, a common condition. Today, where the riverbed meets the lake is an ooze of mud. The lake is all but biologically dead. But a decades-old public trust lawsuit made a move forward in its glacial process through federal courts last week, and lake advocates are hopeful Walker Lake, a cornerstone of the regional economy and ecology, can one day be revived.