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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 0957 Session I: Westem Water Trends and Directions In the lower Colorado River, there is a multi-species conservation program involving states, tribes, and the Federal Government. The program is designed to try to protect and restore endangered species consistent with the Endangered Species Act, and to accommodate water use and development by the lower basin states and tribes. Watershed management plans are another opportunity for joining tribal, environmental and other concerns. The Chelan Agreement in the State of Washington involved tribes, conservationists and water users working to address conflicts between endangered salmon, a growing population's demands for water, and water development goals. In the Deschutes basin, the Environmental Defense Fund and the Warm Spring Tribe have worked together to identifY the threats to water quality and in stream flows and to try to develop solutions to those problems. Again, the Deschutes Basin Resource Conservancy includes a whole cast of characters, including conservationists and tribes. So in sum, I think that conservationists and tribes face similar, albeit not identical, challenges when it comes to achieving water management goals. We are operating in a context where most of the river basins in the West are fully appropriated, where urban populations are mushrooming across the region, and where there are not deep-federal pockets to pick up the costs of making good on old promises. Solving these problems is going to take a combination of water and money, and there are a lot of ideas being kicked around. David mentioned water marketing and other avenues that people are exploring. The Ten Tribes Partnership in the Colorado River Basin was formed in 1992 to try to achieve greater equity for the tribes with water rights in the basin through marketing. The Environmental Defense Fund, among others, believes that we can find ways to arrange leases of water that will protect tribal rights, generate revenue and provide instream benefits as well. In addition to water marketing, it's probably worthwhile for people to explore options for leasing a certain portion of water for instream flows or other environmental benefits in exchange for explicit guarantees to develop rights to other water in the short term. Tribes, conservationists and others should explore the possibility of using a portion of revenue streams from hydropower projects, since after all, the electricity derives largely from tribal water. These funds might be used to finance economic and water development by the tribes and also to finance environmental restoration. 31