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Show 2. impossible for them to get funding for water development projects ON INDIAN LANDS. Is this so? My other concern is whether there exists or could be planned, water allocation methods down on the Tribal Lands in lieu of utilizing canyons on the Uintas on National Forests for purposes of dam construction. I am told*that the Bureau of Reclamation has examined 139 alternatives to damming these two canyons. What structural or diversional possibilities could be found which would fulfill the water demand of water from the south slopes of the Uinta Range (which have significant value for the recreation public using the Uintas) - which could be developed on Tribal Lands below the Uinta Mountain slopes? Who knows anything about this issue J How binding is the present agreement recently reached stating that the Ute Tribe (not the dissident group) supports the C.U.P.? I have succeeded in getting Vern Hamre, Region IV Director, Forest Service, Ogden, to send representatives to our May 11 meeting. He is sending two; a hydrologist who is liaison for water purposes between the Agency and the State; the chief of wildlife management for the region. This is fine, however, the Forest Service sees itself as being limited to recommendations for instream flows it made recently to Governor Matheson in Salt Lake City. These recommendations for instream flows still do not agree with higher recommendations being proposed by the Fish 8 Wildlife Service and neither Agency is recommending what I believe is imperative and possible under the Reservation Doctrine. I have in mind, if we cannot accomplish objectives for the C.U.P.^via the meeting and follow-up, that I will try to develop grounds for a suit based on the Reservation Doctrine. At this coming meeting, then, dol necessarily indicate my dissatisfaction with what I believe, but as yet cannot prove, that the demands of the Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service do not satisfy the protection of c^^fcu. riparian ecosystems; adequate stream flows for full stream productivity and not just minimum protection} and adequate responsibility for providing the public its entitlement to full enjoyment of its wild streams? At this meeting, then, do I support the Forest Service for doing what I consider an inadequate job in demanding rights and quantities of water for management of its resources - or do I push beyond this? I think that even though Mr. Hamre did make recommendations on studied streams, he is alert to possibilities today for greater water allottments than he has felt he could request in the past. The Reservation Doctrine is being actively developed, legally, and opposition to the C.U.P. is re-activating. Knowing Hamre, the fact that he is sending two agency staff people and his top men in the region, is a signal we ought to fully comprehend - here in Utah! He would not discuss this with me, but he knows I have worked with these men on these and other *by Steve Boyden, Ute Salt Lake City attorney |
