The correlation between water management and physical 

 ground water behavior could be improved if water use 

 permitting recognized the unity of water resources in the 

 basin's streams and principal aquifers. Surface water 

 permitting would have to recognize aquifer recharge among the 

 significant "instream" water needs and ground water permit- 

 ting would have to recognize effects on downgradient gaining 

 streams, though the consequences may seem minor on an 

 individual project basis and remote at the time of permit- 

 ting. In a practical sense, this means adopting as manage- 

 ment tools the research data and aquifer model derived from 

 areas where such work has been done. Just as importantly, 

 the permitting process needs to recognize the concept of 

 conjunctive surface water and ground water management. This 

 concept provides the framework in which to incorporate 

 detailed information on regional aquifer behavior as it 

 accumulates. 



Indian and Non-Indian Federal Reserved Water Rights 

 U. S. Forest Service 



Rights Claimed by the U. S. for National Forest 

 Purposes . Water claimed by the United States on behalf of 

 the USDA Forest Service in the Clark Fork Basin is both 

 consumptive and nonconsumptive. These claims are based upon 

 "Federal reserved rights" and Montana water laws. Reserved 

 rights are established when lands are withdrawn from the 

 public domain for a federal purpose. At that time, appur- 

 tenant water, then unappropriated, is implicitly reserved to 

 the extent necessary to accomplish those purposes. The 

 extent of these "rights" and the specific purposes of the 

 reservation is an ongoing litigative process and is yet 

 unclear. 



Consumptive claims are a minor part of the U.S. Forest 

 Service reserved water rights in the Clark Fork Basin. 

 However, claims have been filed with the Montana Water Court 

 for many uses, such as: stock water, summer homes, recrea- 

 tional facilities, and Forest Service work facilities. 



Federal reserved rights claimed by the Forest Service 

 for national forests in the Clark Fork Basin are generally 

 grouped into two categories — channel maintenance flow needs 

 and other resource needs. Both of these flow needs are 

 nonconsumptive, and the water claims would be available to 

 other users below the forest boundaries. Channel maintenance 

 flows are needed to maintain natural stream channel systems 

 and are an integral part of sound watershed management. 

 These flows help to maintain streambank stability and 



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