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Travis L. Thompson

Partner

With over twenty years’ experience representing individual water users, canal companies, municipal providers, and irrigation districts, Travis handles water right permitting, adjudication, and administration throughout the State of Idaho.

Travis also counsels clients on general business, administrative, real property matters and related litigation, including an emphasis on non-profit corporations. He regularly appears before Idaho’s adjudication courts and the Idaho Department Water Resources and has advised on a variety of real property and water right sales. Travis has successfully represented local canal companies and irrigation districts before the Idaho Supreme Court, securing important decisions protecting senior water right interests. A lifelong Idaho resident, Travis is uniquely familiar with water rights and land issues that have touched all parts of the state.

Travis is a former chair of the Idaho State Bar Water Law Section and is a member of the Fifth District Bar Association and Theron W. Ward American Inn of Court. Travis also participates in and advises committees serving the Idaho Water Users Association and Water District 01.

  • Represents multiple canal companies and irrigation districts concerning conjunctive administration of surface and ground water rights across the Eastern Snake Plain Aquifer.
  • Represents municipal water providers concerning water right procurement, transfer, and adjudication of water rights.
  • Advises ranchers and farmers on all aspects of water use and related property rights matters.
  • Represents canal companies regarding water quality regulation and development of TMDLs and implementation plans across southern Idaho.
  • Assists local water quality coalition in business formation and grant application for watershed protection programs.
  • Represents water users on compliance proceedings before the Idaho Department of Water Resources.
  • Represented advisory committee to Idaho’s largest water district regarding ESA consultation on operations of U.S. Bureau of Reclamation reservoirs in the Upper Snake River Basin.
  • Represented canal company in a $25 million sale of water rights to the State of Idaho.
  • Represented water users in adjudication of federal reserved claims in the nation’s largest general stream adjudication encompassing the entire Snake River Basin.
  • Represented utility in successful delisting of various snail species across southern Idaho before U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.

  • Member, American Bar Association Natural Resources & Environment Section
  • Idaho State Bar, Water Law Section, Environment & Natural Resources Law Section Business & Corporate Law Section
  • Director, University of Idaho Foundation (2023)
  • President, Blue Lakes Country Club (2022)
  • President, University of Idaho Alumni Association (2016)

  • Idaho and the Clean Water Rule, 62 Advocate 40 (2019) 
  • 2019 Idaho Supreme Court Update, Idaho Water Users Assn Annual Meeting (2020)
  • Surface Water Coalition Delivery Call Update, Idaho Water Users Assn. Seminar (2015)

  • J.D., cum laude, University of Idaho (2000)
  • B.A., University of Idaho (1997)

  • Idaho State Bar