kind of re-met each other earlier today, he mentioned the fact that Trout 

 Unlimited and agriculture people have worked together. If you'd said ten 

 years ago that environmentalists and agriculturists would be talking and 

 working on certain things people would have said, "I don't believe that's 

 so." 



You know, the environmental movement is probably in a different 

 place today for sure than it was ten years ago. But in Montana there's 

 been a tremendous amount of realization that you have a very small amount 

 of water, you have a very large need and it needs to be taken care of by 

 everybody that has the use here. The hydro thing... I could get into a 

 whole separate thing on that. The Yellowstone is a treasure. You talk to 

 anyone from this area and they talk about the Big Hole. We have so many 

 good rivers in Montana that I guess we all kind of own and protect our 

 own. Allenspur Dam... the scenario of that to anyone that's ever really 

 sat down and spent some time in Paradise Valley and thought about the 

 fact that other places in the country have had similar things and are 

 losing it and what do we lose it for... what length of time. Willie said 

 well, let's take a look. You know, the legislators in Montana have done 

 some very, very good things for us. There are some more things that 

 need to be done. And it has to be a blend. I need a job. You need a 

 job. But it doesn't all have to be done overnight and it has to be done 

 with everyone's long-term goals as best filled as possible. We see a lot of 

 things that are a threat to water. A lot of them have been mentioned 

 today. A lot of things is beneficial use of water that have been mentioned 

 today. Instream flows... water there for wildlife, fish, for taking care of 

 the habitat and the natural environment the way we found it. The way 

 that it was many, many years ago when people first started settling this 

 part of the country, are very important. The average person doesn't read 

 about that. You know, the articles that we read every day that tell about 

 this sort of thing, the development things, the energy things and so on, 

 fail oftentime to get into the other side of what's happening. What the 

 loss is... what the gains are. We're most especially interested in anything 

 that feeds on depletion of down-stream water. Because the more depletion 

 we see of down-stream water, the more the agriculturalists can't keep the 

 right head on their pump, the better chance is that someone says "Let's 

 put up Allenspur Dam and hold that water back." There are lot's of good 

 arguments that say it's feasible to hold back the water. But when you 

 start looking at the hydro and the impoundment and everything else, we 

 have a real battle to fight. 



I'll lay off the writers for a moment and go to the Fish, Wildlife and 

 Parks Department. We want our dollars as sportsmen, those license 

 dollars, to go to our benefit for the resource, for the defense of the 

 resource, for habitat, for enhancement. And we want you to be the 

 leaders. The rank-and file of Fish, Wildlife and Parks are our everyday 

 contact. Now I look around and see some of the people here and think of 

 the number of nights that they've taken out of their own family's lives and 

 traveled to meetings, both industry and agriculture, environmental, to try 

 and be there to try and help. To try and do the things that we need. 

 It's just astounding. We can't thank them enough. But we want 

 aggressive leadership in the departments in state government, to use our 



