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acquired by the Conservancy which are leased to the Rocky • <br />Mountain Biological Laboratory and which also have been <br />designated as a state natural area. In the early 70's the <br />Biological Laboratory obtained water right decrees for <br />maintaining the natural water levels at several high altitude <br />lakes and ponds within the Mexican Cut Preserve. The decrees <br />were obtained without making any artificial impoundment of water <br />for the purpose of "piscatorial, biological research and <br />teaching, wildlife procreation and natural heritage preservation" <br />and confirmed that such water use dated back to 1932.9 When The <br />Nature Conservancy asked the Department of Natural Resources to <br />include these water rights in the natural area designation, the <br />validity of these natural lake water rights was questioned. <br />This questioning was mooted when the Colorado Water <br />Conservation Board agreed to obtain junior natural lake water <br />rights for the same water bodies but for the purpose of <br />preserving the natural environment to a reasonable degree, and to <br />lease the natural lake water rights privately held by the <br />Biological Lab for a period of 100 years. The lease appears to <br />obligate the Conservation Board to defend the validity and <br />priority of the leased rights for their originally decreed, <br />natural area purposes, and gives the Biological Lab the right to <br />terminate the lease and effectively take back these water rights <br />9 Decrees in Case Nos. W-566 through W-582, Water Division <br />No. 5, December 31, 1972. <br />9