Policy makers, tribal leaders and legal scholars will grapple with the contentious issues swirling around the use of negotiated settlements to resolve tribal water rights disputes in the Northwest at the Northwest Tribal Water Rights Conference scheduled at the University of Oregon on Friday, Oct. 26 and Thursday, Oct. 27.

The conference will open at 8 a.m. on both days.

A complete agenda is available at http://www.law.uoregon.edu/org/nwtwc/docs/agenda.pdf.

Michael Bogert, counselor to Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne, will deliver a keynote address at noon on Friday. He will discuss "Sovereignty, Certainty & Opportunity: Secretary Kempthorne's Vision for Tribal Water Rights Settlements in the West."

Disputes over the allocation of water blanket the western landscape. In various basins, the Secretary of the Interior has initiated a process for negotiated settlement. These negotiated settlements have substantial implications for tribal people, water users, fish stocks, hydropower generation, and environmental quality.

The 2006 Conference is sponsored by the Appropriate Dispute Resolution Center and the Environmental and Natural Resources Law Program at the University of Oregon School of Law in conjunction with the conference founder, the Center for Water Advocacy.

The Center for Water Advocacy is a public interest policy and legal advocacy organization dedicated to protecting water resources in the Northwest United States.

"Tribal water rights remain one of the last vestiges for protecting water and, therefore, riparian and other resources on both tribal and federal lands," according to Harold Shepherd, the center's executive director. "As such, settlement agreements provide a critical mechanism for protecting water resources and fish habitat in these areas."

The first day of the conference will focus on the global significance of the increasing pressure on dwindling water resources, the "commodification" of water on an international scale and how livestock grazing, logging, mining, water diversions, and other resource extraction issues affect water availability on private lands.

Legal strategies to resolve these issues will take center stage on day two of the conference. Panels will discuss how settlement negotiations are structured, who is invited to participate, and the cultural and ethical issues that arise.

The Northwest Tribal Water Rights Conference was the first conference of its kind in the region specifically focused on tribal water issues. The conference has successfully brought together tribal leaders and staff and members of the legal community to discuss ideas, share strategies, and develop solutions. Since its beginning in 2004, the conference has welcomed representatives from 14 tribes in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, two tribal consortia groups, five non-profits focusing on water issues, the Oregon Department of Justice, the Oregon Senate, faculty and students from two Oregon universities, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and 15 law firms in the Pacific Northwest.

Information on this year's conference is available at http://www.law.uoregon.edu/org/nwtwc   or by contacting Jill Forcier at 541-346-3845 or enr@uoregon.edu