User groups continue to voice dissatisfaction for agency’s decision

By D. Linsey Wisdom
News Editor

The map provided by the Forest Service shows the sevenmile section of river proposed for new boating options.

The U.S. Forest Service has opened the proposal and accompanying environmental assessment July 2 and started a 30-day comment period through Aug. 1.

“We believe this alternative recommended is preferred because it preserves the outstanding value of back-country fishing while allowing some boating to take place along the upper reaches of the river,” said spokesperson Terry Seyden.

Seyden sits in the minority with his belief.

[click here for the full size map (pdf)]

The use of the Upper Chattooga – a 21-mile stretch starting just below Cashiers, traveling the Ellicott Rock Wilderness and ending at the Highway 28 bridge in South Carolina – has been hotly debated over the last several years.

In 1974, the 57-mile length of the Chattooga River was declared a Wild and Scenic River and two years later a boating ban was placed on the upper third of the river. In 2004, paddling lobbying group American Whitewater (AW) appealed the most recent land management plan that would uphold the ban. The Washington office of the USDA upheld that appeal.

“The decision on the appeal issued by the Washington office did not change the management of the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River,” reads a statement on the Sumter National Forest Web site. “[It] directed the Southern Regional Office and the Sumter National Forest to do additional work, specifically to conduct an appropriate visitor use capacity analysis to collect information for reassessing the decision and to involve affected and interested parties.”

Public meetings, comment periods, user analysis and open comment periods ensued, culminating in last week’s announcement. The Forest Service proposes opening an additional seven miles of the river to boating, restricted by group size, season and water levels. To address overuse of the wilderness area, the proposal outlines additional steps in the closure of campsites and user-created trails, parking restrictions and limits to group sizes for hiking and camping as well.

The goal was to reach a compromise for all user groups, but few groups are pleased.

“My first impression? The Forest Service just threw the dog a bone,” said AW member Bruce Hare. He claims a long history in the area both with paddling and angling, was a former member with South Carolina Forestwatch and has been active in the battle to open the river to boating. “It’s an insult to the intelligence of the entire whitewater community.”

Likewise, Buzz Williams, Chattooga Conservancy director, was unhappy with the alternative released. “Who did the Forest Service listen to? AW? Trout Unlimited? I don’t know, but I can say there has been a lot of behind the scenes lobbying in Washington,” he said. Trout Unlimited is a national organization with a local chapter in Rabun County that represents anglers in this battle. “I think the decision was made a long time ago. All of this has just been a delay to figure out how to package it,” Williams said.

The Conservancy represents a group of volunteers who have worked since 1991 to protect the watershed and timberland around the Chattooga River.

Trout Unlimited representative Doug Adams seems to be the one side agreeing with the Forest Service decision.

“I believe that the Forest Service preferred alternative is a compromise fair to all stakeholders. It is obvious that not all recreation activities are compatible,” Adams said. “Zoning ensures that different and conflicting types of users are physically separated. Zoning is a time tested fair, and legal land (and water) management practice.’’

The Environmental Assessment

The EA broke the river down into four basic quadrants and then looked at nine alternatives and the environmental impacts as applied to each section of river.

The first section, the Chattooga Cliffs, runs from Grimshawes Bridge to Bull Pen, or the Old Iron Bridge. The next section runs through Ellicott Rock Wilderness ending at Burrell’s Ford Bridge. Rock Gorge runs to Lick Log Creek, and the last run from Lick Log to Highway 28 is the Nicholson Fields area.

The 10 alternatives run the spectrum of choices from keeping the current ban all the way to alternative 8, which allows opening the entire river to private boating opportunities without restriction.

The EA included a look at damage that has already occurred in the area, primarily through 19 miles of user-created trails.

“User-created is really just a smoke screen meaning ‘angler-created,’” Hare said.

The EA stated that 80 percent of all sedimentation and erosion damage has come from road maintenance. None of the recreational users that were studied created significant environmental damage.

However, the study suggested closing down some camp sites or moving them away from the river’s edge to cut down on damage to the banks of the river. User created trails create problems by trampling down plant life, which act as a natural buffer for storm water runoff.

Other areas of study included rare plant life that occurs in each of the zones and how to best protect those area.

Another issue involved large woody debris, which has been a contested issue between anglers and boaters. Anglers prefer the debris in the water as it assists in insect population, off of which fish feed off of, and provides cool, dark places for fish to congregate. However, this debris poses a threat to boaters.

Hare said paddlers don’t need to remove the debris, but could cut a channel through fallen logs allowing safe passage. Similar actions take place on Holcomb and Overflow creeks where paddlers are currently allowed.

“It hardly seems a wilderness experience if you hear buzz saws cutting through the trees,” Williams said.

Both the EA and Joe Gaitins with Georgia Forestwatch also questioned how the dying of the hemlock trees would affect the number of fallen logs in the river.

The EA estimates that 90 percent of the hemlocks could be dead within the next five years as the woolly adelgid, an aphid-like pest, continues to kill the trees.

Alternative 4

The alternative preferred by the Forest Service is number four. This opens boating from a currently undesignated trail – The County Line Road Trail – at the Jackson/Macon line through Ellicott Rock ending at Burrell’s Ford. Boating would be allowed Dec. 1 – March 1 limited to four groups per day (groups may number from two to six individuals). Paddlers are only allowed when the water measures at 450 cfs – a level too high for typical backcountry angling.

“How is that going to be measured? Well, I don’t know if all of that has been worked out yet,” Seyden said. Sumter National Forest Public Affairs Officer Michelle Burnette said, “Currently, the agency is exploring a variety of ways to predict a ‘boatable’ day. If the preferred alternative is implemented, the agency will declare a ‘boatable’ day and will most likely post this information on the Forest Service Web site.” She said a self-registering system would be put in place similar to the type used on lower portions of the river.

Seyden said registration was considered for overnight stays on the river, but eventually that idea was discounted. Group sizes on hikers, campers and anglers have also been limited. Parking at Burrell’s Ford has also been eliminated within one-quarter mile of the bridge.

“What has happened with this alternative is sort of like a balloon,” said Gaitins. “When you squeeze one end, the other end pops.” By reducing parking and activities at the Burrell’s Ford area and opening activities further upriver, congestion and overuse will likewise move from Burrell’s Ford upriver.

William with the Chattooga Conservancy questioned the validity of using the County Line Trail Road as a new portage point.

The Conservancy had suggested the forest service allow boating at an existing access point – the Iron Bridge.

“How can we decide on a project when the study is not complete? We can’t comment on using a trail that hasn’t been designated yet,” Williams said. Designating a new trail requires a separate process. Parking at the top of the County Line Trail Road would also be a problem. In addition, it is a 1.7 mile hike paddlers would have to take to get their boats to the river’s edge.

“We are not against boating, and we think there is a way for all users to share the river, but what the Forest Service is proposing just doesn’t make sense,” Williams said.

Another criticism is that the seasonal and water flow restrictions essentially narrows the window of opportunity down to an average of six days per year.

“Based on 67 years of U.S. Geological Survey data, on the entire river, on average there are 50 boatable days. At a max, 125 days,” Hare said. He said he had a hard time understanding why there was any conflict at all. To restrict that number further by seasonal and water flow restrictions takes that number down to an average of six days per year.

The Next Step

“As we near the end of this planning process, the boating community and their lawyers stand alone, as they have from the beginning, opposing the zoning allocation,” said Adams.

AW spokesman Kevin Colburn refused comment as to whether or not AW would, at this point, seek a lawsuit against the Forest Service if this management option is put into place. Members of the boating community posting to an online forum “BoaterTalk” alluded on multiple occasions that this was the leaning of AW.

“I can say that if the anglers, fishers, birders and hikers aren’t willing to share this public resource, I’ll take them to court and fight them ‘til I am dead,” Hare said.

“We are at the deeply entrenched part of the battle where the lines have been drawn deeply in the sand. The Forest Service should have known better than to throw something like this out there.”

Williams said the Chattooga Conservancy would also consider bringing suit. The procedural problems with the current alternative do not allow for a fair comment period, he said.

In all, it has been an expensive process that has resulted in little resolution. While members of the fishing, hiking, conservation and other recreational users seem to be leaning toward a compromise allowing some boating on the upper portion of the river; the paddling group stands its ground requesting the entire river.

Seeing that this is a public resource, representatives said zoning is really simply discrimination against paddlers, a wilderness compliant user group. Prohibiting horseback riding, mountain biking and the use of recreational vehicles cannot be compared because these are environmentally harmful activities.

“There are 10 times as many fishable streams as there are boatable ones. You can do everything else over the entire stream, but you can only boat on the lower half and then only when there is enough water,” Hare said.

The cost of reaching a point where dissatisfaction is present on multiple sides has also been considerable. Parties outside of the forest service estimated the agency has spent close to $2 million to reach this point.

“We have spent under $500,000 in contracting costs for the Chattooga analysis,” Burnett said. “I can’t tell you specifically how much the agency has spent on individuals’ time because we don’t keep track of employees’ time on a project by project basis.”

Whatever the total bill reaches, it has been a costly endeavor.

“Taxpayers have paid for a fresh 10 course meal and just got served a 30-year-old stale bagel. The EA is that bad. It is embarrassing,” Colburn said.

Public comments may be made until August 1.

At that point, the Forest Service will review all comments, analyze them and decide what revisions need to be made to the proposal. A final decision is expected by the end of the year.

Comments on the pre-decisional EA are due to the Forest Service by Aug. 1, 2008, and may be e-mailed to This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it or surface mailed to U.S. Forest Service, Chattooga River Project, 4931 Broad River Road, Columbia, SC 29212.

A copy of the predecisional EA and a summary of the alternatives are available on the Francis Marion and Sumter National Forests’ web site at http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/fms where additional background information can be found.