53 



would not have any problem with allowing that landowner a cer- 

 tain amount of traditional access to that property. 



Mr. COOLEY. Thank you very much. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Cooley. I wanted to ask Mr. 

 Bailey if you follow the line of questioning, what is certain tradi- 

 tional access in your mind? 



Mr. Bailey. What I could clarify there is that traditional access 

 would mean — be access that permit holder or that private land 

 owner has traditionally used and traditionally needed to access 

 their property to maintain their property. 



To be quite frank with you. Congressman, I would submit that 

 the only part of the legislation that you co-sponsored that I would 

 agree with and wouldn't have any problem supporting is the last 

 section that does provide access for that private property holder. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Thank you, Mr. Bailey. Mr. Bowers, you de- 

 scribed the effect of powerboat noise on a wilderness experience. 

 What do you think was Congress' intent when the HCNRA act spe- 

 cifically excluded the river corridor from the wilderness designa- 

 tion? What, in your opinion, do you think Congress meant by that 

 wording? 



Mr. Bowers. I am not sure what Congress' intent was at that 

 point. I do see a problem with excluding the river from all manage- 

 ment for the whole area. The river is the central part of the Hells 

 Canyon and I don't see how you can really separate the two at 

 least when you are managing it on a day-to-day basis. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Mr. Hauptman, you mentioned the noise 

 caused by the powerboaters. If the noise could be reduced, would 

 this address your concern about eliminating the boaters altogether? 



Mr. Hauptman. It was never my intention to eliminate the 

 powerboaters. They are a part of the tradition on the river and that 

 would never have been anything that I would consider supporting. 



What I do support — OK, limiting the noise of the powerboats is 

 extremely important, and that would go a long ways toward resolv- 

 ing conflict in the canyon. 



Ten powerboats that are below — they have a new technology that 

 makes the boat real quiet. Ten real quiet boats don't have — have 

 less impact than one very noisy boat. 



So yes, eliminating the noise would go a long way toward elimi- 

 nating the conflict, but we still need regulation in the numbers. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. Based on the testimony I have heard today, 

 eliminating some of the noise may create a safety problem, because 

 people wouldn't be able to anticipate these boats that apparently 

 travel between, you s^^y 60 miles an hour? 



Mr. Bailey. I said that. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. And we have heard testimony that the 

 powerboaters usually travel at about 24 miles an hour and can 

 reach speeds of 50 miles per hour. Is that accurate? 



Mr. Bailey. I heard that also, yes. 



Mrs. Chenoweth. All right. I guess my question then doesn't 

 need a response, but I do think that there is a safety factor here 

 and it really probably is good that we can hear the powerboaters. 



Mr. Bowers. Madame Chairman, if I could just address that. I 

 had mentioned that in my testimony, and one of the facts is that 

 while noise is a problem, when you are on the river and you are 



