In addition, recreational claims related to fish and 

 wildlife have been filed on 11 lakes in the Clark Fork Basin 

 below Kerr Dam. One lake is a pothole on the Ninepipe 

 Wildlife Management Area and the other ten lakes are in the 

 Blackfoot drainage. The following is a list of the claims: 



A total of 31,337 claims were filed in the 13 subbasins 

 of the Clark Fork drainage. Temporary preliminary decrees 

 have been issued in seven of the 13 subbasins as part of the 

 statewide general adjudication (Table 3-3) . A temporary 

 preliminary decree (which precedes a preliminary decree) does 

 not include Indian and non-Indian federally reserved water 

 rights. The negotiated reserved water rights are required by 

 statute to be included in a preliminary decree. 



A total of 10,862 claims have been incorporated in 

 temporary preliminary decrees in seven subbasins. Temporary 

 preliminary decrees have yet to be issued in six subbasins 

 that affect 20,488 claims. 



The DNRC is providing claim examination assistance to 

 the Montana Water Court by identifying certain issues and 

 factual discrepancies related to the claimed historic water 

 use. From 1982 through 1985, the DNRC followed a set of 

 verification procedures that were authorized by the Water 

 Court. These procedures were not open to public inspection 

 and comment during their drafting and implementation. In 

 addition, the rules were frequently changed by the Water 

 Court as they were being applied by the DNRC. 



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