CHEYENNE -- Despite a full-court press from Montana officials this week seeking the release of more water into the Bighorn River, Gov. Dave Freudenthal says Wyoming will insist that the federal government maintain upstream storage by holding back flows.

"The request that has been made by the state and the communities and the county up there has been to simply ask that that original law and structure of that project be followed," Freudenthal said at his regularly scheduled press conference Friday. "The Bureau of Reclamation has begun to follow that, and that is obviously not to Montana's liking."

Montana's governor and congressional delegation wrote to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation early this week saying a federal plan to cut planned spring releases on the river threatens the river's famous trout fishery in that state.

Wyoming officials want more water held upstream to boost tourism at Bighorn Lake National Recreation Area, which straddles the border between the two states. The upper reaches of the lake in Wyoming have stayed dry in recent years.

The bureau announced earlier this month that it intends to release 1,500 cubic feet of water per second from Yellowtail Dam. Montana officials say at least 2,000 cfs is needed for a healthy trout spawn.

In setting the spring releases, the bureau cited below-average winter snowfalls and the need "to be conservative" in the face of the regional drought.

In their letter to Reclamation Commissioner Robert Johnson, the Montana officials stated that the agency's decision to reduce releases from the dam, "came as a complete surprise and demonstrated a disregard for traditional federal agency-state channels of communication."

The Montana officials said they don't accept the bureau's latest decision as final.

Freudenthal said that, in a sense, he can't blame Montana officials for being upset. "They have been bending the original understandings up there for many years," and "they were getting something that they weren't really entitled to for many years," he said.

"When we finally ask the bureau to start following the law and the understandings of the project, now Montana goes in and says 'we're going to put legislation in to change the law,"' Freudenthal said.

During his press conference, Freudenthal joked about Montana trying to meddle in Wyoming's affairs over the issue.

"But as always, I appreciated Gov. (Brian) Schweitzer giving me suggestions how I ought to run my state, and I intend to pay about as much attention to that suggestion as I have to his others," Freudenthal said.