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had grown significantly from the early 80's to the early 90's, and 

 what the river plan that we proposed would do, it would meet the 

 level of visitor expectation and visitor profile as was found in that 

 1988 study by the University of Idaho and would spread the power- 

 boat use more evenly across all days of the week. 



Historically, there has been quite a peak on the weekends of use, 

 and a dropping off in the middle part of the week. It would spread 

 that use. 



Mr. Hansen. Have you had any complaint from people who were 

 floating the river, whatever, or walking, about the noise factor? 

 That is a sensitive issue in this committee, because we keep hear- 

 ing this from Secretary Babbitt about airplanes and anything else 

 that goes into a recreation area or a park. 



I am not that familiar with it, but I imagine a certain amount 

 of noise goes along with these things. It doesn't bother me, but I 

 am just curious if you are getting complaints about that? 



Mr. Richmond. Yes, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Hansen. Have you had any accidents where a powerboat has 

 had a collision or in any way hit a floating raft? Has anything like 

 that occurred? 



Mr. Richmond. There have not been any — how would I call this, 

 unplanned accidents. 



I think there have been a few bumps and grinds by some, you 

 might say, extremists. 



Mr. Hansen. Has the Forest Service been called, is it a tort 

 feasor on any situation where there has been a lawsuit because of 

 a problem on the river with commercial or private rafting or the 

 powerboat people? 



Mr. Richmond. Not that I am aware of, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Hansen. You don't appropriate any money to take care of 

 any potential problems as far as any lawsuits against the United 

 States Government, and I would assume that every organization 

 coming in here complains about the amount of time they spend de- 

 fending lawsuits. 



Chief, have you had any problems? 



Mr. Thomas. I would defer to the supervisor, but I don't know 

 of any legal actions. Of course, we do have a judgment fund if that 

 was the question. 



Mr. HajsTSEN. So if we eliminate noise, we eliminate crowding, we 

 eliminate lawsuits, what has the river planning done? 



Mr. Richmond. I am not sure I understand your question, Mr. 

 Chairman. 



Mr. Hansen. I have a built-in problem with regulations, and I 

 know they are necessary; don't get me wrong, and I appreciate 

 greatly what you folks do. 



I am just saying, when you start eliminating the problems that 

 Mr. Lyons and others have come up with, I want to hear a reason 

 why we want to put these regulations out. 



Mr. Lyons. Mr. Chairman, let me address that, because I just 

 want to clarify a point. 



These aren't problems that I came up with. These reflect the sur- 

 veys that we do on the ground. Bob just referenced research work 

 done by the University of Idaho. 



