GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The state of Oregon on Thursday backed the Klamath Tribes’ claim to have the oldest water rights in the upper Klamath Basin.

The findings filed with the Klamath County Circuit Court in Klamath Falls gives the tribes a new dominant position in the longstanding battles over sharing scarce water between fish and farms in the Upper Klamath Basin. Farmers and ranchers used to drawing irrigation water from rivers where the tribes now have the oldest claim could be restricted in drought years.