professional judgment will be used to assign rivers to value 

 classes. 



The Methods section explains the mechanics of the 

 procedure — how the inventory will be done. The reader may 

 wish to scan this section first, to see how the study 

 elements fit together. 



Finally, samples are provided of the intended work sheet 

 that will be used to conduct the inventory (to be used in 

 the field and retained by the State; a summary of these data 

 will be provided to BPA). 



CATEGORY DESCRIPTION 



Many physical, biological, social, and managerial 

 characteristics contribute to the recreational value of rivers. 

 The type and ease of public access, use levels, river length, 

 type of scenery, rapids, the presence of game fish, level of 

 development, onsite management, and other aspects of the river 

 corridor determine the level and type of recreation most suitable 

 on the river. 



Public tastes regarding these and other river attributes may 

 vary, so recreation managers recognize the importance of 

 providing a wide variety of different river recreation 

 opportunities. It is therefore not desirable to assign value to 

 specific river characteristics. For example, high use levels 

 indicate a river's po pular it y-- but not necessarily the level of 

 recreational quality. Rivers receiving high use may simply be 

 located closer to population centers, or have easier access than 

 other streams. Less-popular river segments may provide better 

 opportunities for solitude, or river camping, which are also 

 needed opportunities. 



The point is that many types of rivers can be valuable for 

 recreation; rivers with high use or easy access do not 

 necessarily have more intrinsic value as recreation settings. 

 The same is true with other recreational characteristics of 

 rivers. River segments will therefore be categorized by their 

 recreational attributes as mentioned above, but value will not be 

 assigned strictly based on them; categorization and valuation are 

 distinct steps. 



The scope of this study is limited because the time and budget 

 constraints do not permit the complete field inventory commonly 

 used to conduct inventories of recreational resources. While 

 suitable for use as a planning document in the initial stages of 

 hydropower planning, this inventory is not suitable for actually 



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