50 



coming. You cannot hear the Jetboats coming up the rivers, and at 

 60 miles an hour, for us people that live here in the city, it is kind 

 of akin to driving your bicycle on the beltway. 



We agree with a lot of what has been said today about not trying 

 to regulate people off the rivers. Mr. Hansen said that he has a big 

 problem with regulations, and I think that our constituency also in 

 many instances has a large problem with regulations, especially if 

 we think they are overburdensome. 



But we do not — this is becoming more and more of an occurrence 

 for almost everybody. Rivers are becoming more and more regu- 

 lated every day, so with that experience and from our experience, 

 we understand that a number of other river users also do not want 

 to blocked off of rivers, and we are not recommending that this be 

 done on the Snake. 



However, this legislation would not share the resource as we 

 stated earlier. It would cut the Forest Service's ability to control 

 the highest impact recreational use on the river. It would lock in 

 today's growing motorized use levels, and it would attempt to bal- 

 ance us against nonmotorized regulations that were established 

 over 15 years ago. We do not see this as a fair balance of the re- 

 source. 



The final point is that we see this as setting a dangerous prece- 

 dent. If this is enacted, then additional legislation could be intro- 

 duced to allow jet boating on other rivers, and the Forest Service 

 is the managing agency for a lot of very outstanding Whitewater 

 rivers including two in Georgia, the Cache la Poudre in Colorado, 

 the Rogue in Oregon, and many others. 



We see this as a growing problem, and it is not just an idle fear. 

 While ^Jetboats are allowed on the Snake, jet skis and personal 

 watereraft are not; however, many rivers do not enjoy this level of 

 protection. 



In 1995, Jetboats and personal watercraft became an issue on 

 many rivers, including Washington's Wild and Scenic Skagit; in 

 West Virginia, the New and Gauley Rivers which are also National 

 recreation areas; and also, on California Wild and Scenic Upper 

 Kern River. 



In 1994, personal water craft were involved in 2,500 collisions, 

 almost half of the reported water crashes that were reported. Add- 

 ing Whitewater to this will only increase these levels. 



Thank you very much for your time. I appreciate it and look for- 

 ward to your questions. 



[The prepared statement of Richard J. Bowers may be found at 

 the end of hearing.] 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Bowers. I would like to turn 

 to the gentleman, Mr. Cooley, for questions. 



Mr. Cooley. Mr. Bailey and Mr. Hughes, were you participants 

 in the Forest Service LACs or limited access change task force, ei- 

 ther one of them? 



Mr. Bailey. Yes, I was, as was Mr. Hauptman. 



Mr. Cooley. OK. Both of your concerns with the proposal that 

 the task force agreed upon were limiting powerboat uses and start 

 with you first, Mr. Bailey. 



Mr. Bailey. Well, we proposed that within the LAC process, it 

 came to an attempt to reach a consensus on that plan. Myself and 



