Thursday, March 06, 2008

Row v. Wade on the Chattooga


Via TheFishingWire.com comes more news on an ongoing battle between rafters, kayakers and anglers on the Chattooga River.


Kayakers say the U.S. Forest Service’s ban on the “steep creek” section prevents them from kayaking or canoeing on plunging drops, narrow chutes and Class IV-V rapids.
Anglers say the kayakers are the waterborne equivalent of ATVs, interfering with fishing and solitude. Hikers also want the ban left in place to help preserve the National Wild and Scenic River corridor.

Check out our previous coverage of this controversy here and here . Commentors have pointed out that 2/3rds of the river are already open to use by rafters and kayaks and also gave us the (Row v Wade) title.
Tip of the fishing hat to Bill Aucoin and his Aucoin report.

1 comment:

Sam I am said...

Only the kayak lobby says "kayaks are the waterborne equivalent to ATVs" to anger local boaters into action. What anglers say is that kayaking on a small mountain creek will impact the ability to catch fish and disturbe wildlife. Chattooga paddlers and anglers were each allocated part of the river thirty years ago because the floating canoe traffic spoiled the fishing. The kayakers now demand access to the entire river regardless of what other visitors wants. Hikers, birders, swimmers and anglers all values sections of the disturbance-free river for various reasons; while kayakers already have access to 2/3rds of the river.
The kayakers are demanding expanding private kayakers while also pushing the forest service to ban horse trails, stop motorized craft and inner tubes, reduce commercial rafting, reduce fish stocking and to move hiking trails away from their view from the river.
Basically what we have is a bunch of spoiled brats demanding the USFS turn the entire resource over to them. A special interest lobby group run amuck.