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<br />I <br /> <br />and administrativo uses, a~tiduiture and ir- <br />rigation, stock raising and watering, the devel- <br />opment, conservation, and management of resident <br />and migratory wildlife and wildlife resources, <br />to include birds, fishes, mammals and all other <br />wild animals, and all types of aquatic land <br />vegetation; fire fighting and prevention; <br />forest improvement and protection; commercial, <br />drinking and sanitary uses; road watering; <br />watershed protection and management; wilderness <br />preservation; flood, soil and erosion control; <br />preservation of scenic, esthetic and other pub- <br />lic values; and fish culture. conservation, <br />habitat protection and management.' The United <br />States claims the right to the maintenance of <br />such continuous, uninterrupted flows of water <br />and such minimum stream and lrute levels as are <br />sufficient in quantity and quality to insure <br />all of these things that I have mentioned. <br /> <br />I <br /> <br />We don't know how much water that is. It <br />may be all of it that occurs on the national <br />forest, or only a small part of it. We are not <br />able to make a quantitative analysis of how much <br />water is being claimed. In any event, it appears <br />that it will be' a substantial amount. We then <br />have to subtract that amount of water from any <br />of the projects that we have planned, or it <br />could affect projects which have been construc- <br />ted in recent years, whether on the eastern or <br />western ~lopes. Under this same t.heory, the <br />United States is now filing on all reclamation <br />projects. That includes everything that the <br />Bureau is working on today, with a priority <br />date relating back to when the Bureau started <br />its reconnaissance studies. We may find a proj- <br />ect that thought it had a senior decree suddenly <br />finds out it is junior to some other project. <br />This forces the water users in Colorado now to <br />fight among themselves as to the relative <br />priorities. It forces some to come in and <br />support the government's claims on one hand as <br />far as the decrees to the projects are con- <br />cerned, and fight the government on the other <br /> <br />-77- <br />