Hndncitcs 



IS Nc-ol wDukl niihcr li.i\r wildlife than mines as nciglilxjrs. Vihcn ihc settling? pond dike at the Quanz Ciulch 

 niine failed in 198", it spilled wuste into a meadow Neal owns on the banks of Rixk Creek Neal also sa>'N 

 that because his propeny was homesteaded after 1912, the government retained mineral rights— access to 

 his huid for prospecting. 



19 A trend by landowners to restrict hunting on private property w-as noted by state officials in the early 19^0s. 

 Lindowners complained of careless shooting, littering, gates left open, destruction and theft of equipment 

 and li\-estixk. See Montana Department of FLsh, Wildlife and Parks, Surve>', July 1, 1972 to June 30, 1973, op. cit. 



20. Montana Fish and Game Department, Job Completion Report, May 1, 1956-Aril 30, 1957, op. cit. 



21. Rock Creek Advisor^' Committee minutes, presentation by Montana Fish and Game Department bicilogist 

 Reueljansen, April 16, 1973. 



22. Ibid. Jansen reported only three bighorns left, two of them males. But Deerlodge National Forest represen- 

 tative Bob Shackelford later revised the estimate to six to fourteen. See minutes of September 24, 1974. 



23. Neal complains about the use of helicopters in relocation operations. The bighorns panic and charge through 

 fences, ripping out as much as a quarter mile of wire and maiming themselves, Neal says. 



2-i .\ 1991 repon by the Montana Department of FLsh, Wildlife and Parks lists streams in Montana suffering 

 dcv,-atering that is either chronic (year-round) or periodic (significant only in drought or water-short \'ears). 

 Twenr\--one river miles of Rock Creek tributaries are listed as chronically dcwatered. These findings will be 

 updated periodically through field observation by regional fisheries biologists. 



25. The authority was granted under SecUon 89-801(2), RCM 1947 See Appendix C. 



26. The Murphy Rights bill was repealed in 1973, but the Murphy Rights appropriations remain valid. Senate 

 Bill 76 In 1979 empowered the Montana W^ter Court to quantify and validate all water rights existing prior 

 to 1973 and then summarize them into a decree for each of the state's 85 sub-basins. 



27 See Appendix C. 



28. The Bauer Ranch claims rights, as \et unadjudicated, as far back as 1872. Records of w:ater rights are kept 

 by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. (This centralization of documents was 

 specified by the VC'ater Use Act of 1973) A list of water rights in the Rock Creek Basin is presented in Appen- 

 dix D. Some of these rights may yet be examined and modified by the Montana VC^ter Court. 



29. The number of water appropriations for irrigation declined dramatically beginning in the 1950s, according 

 to records kept by the Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. 



30. In his memo of December 17 1982, to Mike McLane adjudication program manager for the Department 

 of Natural Resources and Conscrv^ation, VCfestenberg recommends allowing staff to provide analN'ses to the 

 Chief Viatcr Judge on co-mingling of %v-ater rights, incremental development, and water rights transfers— all 

 issues which were complicating the adjudication. 



31. Bob Thompson, Environmental Quality Council, synopsis memo, undated. Also see Adjudication Program 

 Chronolog\-, Water Rights Bureau, Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation, undated 



32. These were listed in the "temporary- preliminary' deciee " issued by the Water Court. A temporary preliminar\- 

 decree is a listing of all water rights in a basin containing federal reser^-ed water rights that have not been 

 quantified. Such decrees contain all rights other than the federal reserved rights being negotiated. Later, the 

 venter Court will issue a "preliminary decree" as a second phase. The Rixk Creek temporarv- preliminary 

 decree was issued in 1984. (Rock Creek Ls listed as sub-basin 76E, one of 85 sub-basias designated by the 

 VC'ater Court.) Susan Cottingham, program manager for the Reserved >X^ter Rights Compact CommLssion, 

 sav-s the Lolo and Deerlodge Forests have yet to begin negotiations on their federal reser\rd w,:ater rights 

 for channel stabilit\- 



