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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Friday,
February 25, 2005 </FONT>
<P><A
href="http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2005/02/25/news/top_stories/top1.txt">http://www.heraldandnews.com/articles/2005/02/25/news/top_stories/top1.txt</A>
<P><B>Ranchers, tribes make water deal-above Upper Klamath Lake</B>
<P>Published February 25, 2005
<P>By TODD KEPPLE
<P>Ranchers who irrigate out of streams above Upper Klamath Lake have reached an
agreement <BR>with leaders of the Klamath Tribes over how to resolve a
longstanding dispute over water rights.
<P>Under the agreement, ranchers and other landowners will drop their opposition
to the Tribes' <BR>claim for water rights that would maintain high streamflows
in the Sprague, Williamson and <BR>Wood rivers and their tributaries.
<P>In exchange, the tribes have agreed to not exercise their water right in a
way that would harm <BR>irrigators whose claims to water were established before
July 1, 1961.
<P>The agreement announced today was described as a modest start to untangling a
complex tangle <BR>of claims and protests among hundreds of water users in the
Klamath Basin.
<P>Tribal Chairman Allen Foreman and Fort Klamath rancher Roger Nicholson
announced the <BR>agreement this morning at the Herald and News.
<P>The state of Oregon is in the process of adjudicating several hundred claims
for water rights in <BR>the Upper Klamath Basin. The Klamath Tribes were among
many parties who filed claims for <BR>water in 1997.
<P>The adjudication process has been stalled since then by disputes over
conflicting claims. An <BR>adjudication is a legal proceeding that quantifies
how much water goes with a claim.
<P>Klamath Water Users hire director
<P>Greg Addington, a lobbyist for the Oregon Farm Bureau Federation in Salem,
said today he has <BR>been selected as the executive director of the Klamath
Water Users Association.
<P>He replaces Dan Keppen, who resigned from the position last month.
<P>Addington has worked for the Farm Bureau Federation for the past nine years,
most recently as a <BR>lobbyist in the state Legislature and in Congress.
<P>He previously spent six years as a southwest Oregon regional manager for the
Farm Bureau.
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