17 



We don't seek to eliminate noise and conflicts. We seek to better 

 manage them to provide a quality recreation experience for all 

 users of the river. 



Of course, the difficulty is demand increases, and I would suggest 

 that perhaps the situation described on the Green, where the use 

 went down for a period of time, not certainly reflecting a trend. I 

 think the information that we have indicates that there is likely to 

 be even greater demand for use of the river in the future. 



What we seek to do is try to better manage river use to provide 

 quality recreation experience that is defined by the users of the 

 river, not commercial users, so that the noncommercial users can 

 continue to enjoy the quality of recreation experience they have 

 come to expect, one of the reasons they are attracted to these 

 areas, and so that commercial users can continue to attract the cli- 

 ents that they seek to help support their livelihood and who want 

 to enjoy that kind of recreation experience. 



It is obviously a very difficult challenge. The regulations aren't 

 put in place for the sake of putting them in place. They are an at- 

 tempt to try and manage a resource which is of tremendous public 

 value, and interest and demand, and trying to come up with some- 

 thing that to the best of our ability reflects and responds to what 

 we hear from users. 



Mr. Richmond. Mr. Chairman, I might add that to give you an 

 idea of what the visitors said in 1988 in that study, just to give you 

 a bit of a flavor of what they said, 35 percent of the visitors that 

 were interviewed by the University of Idaho said that they felt that 

 the river situation in terms of floaters and powerboaters was 

 crowded at that time. 



Eighty-nine percent of those visitors said they would accept regu- 

 lation if that regulation would maintain the existing river experi- 

 ence, because 94 percent of those visitors favored maintaining that 

 river experience that they were having during that 1988 period. 



In 1994, we did a public opinion survey as part of the revision 

 of the comprehensive plan for the Hells Canyon NRA, and motor- 

 ized recreation was the most frequently mentioned "incompatible- 

 human activity" and that, of course, wasn't specific to the river. It 

 was specific to upland use as well. 



Over two-thirds of the public comments on that EIS in fact sup- 

 ported fair and equitable use that would continue this desired 

 recreation experience. 



Mr. Hansen. It is always hard to come to a place where we can 

 please people. We will always have some complaints. 



I know you folks work diligently to try and do what you think 

 is right, that people do have a good experience on the rivers and 

 that has become an interesting and a fun thing for the American 

 public to do, and I do it myself every chance I get and enjoy it im- 

 mensely. 



Every time I fish the Green River, I wonder why there are so 

 many people around. Being an old Wyoming and Montana fisher- 

 man, if I see somebody within 500 yards, I think he is too close, 

 but I am of the old school. 



Us old folks see it that way; however, I fully realize that a lot 

 of people really enjoy these experiences. When wrestling with our 

 end of this thing, we don't do what you do, but we do have to pass 



