12 



use comes from Section 10[a] of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. 

 That portion of the act is very specific in terms of the direction 

 from Congress to manage the use on those rivers. 



Mr. COOLEY. Well, the thing is, the river itself was taken out of 

 the wild and scenic in the act itself. It is not a part of the wild and 

 scenic section. It was completely taken out and would be governed 

 separately, not as a wild and scenic, but separately within the can- 

 yon. 



Mr. Thomas. The Hells Canyon NRA, the legislation that estab- 

 lished the NRA, also designated that portion of the river as a wild 

 and scenic river, so that act congruently established the Snake 

 River as a wild and scenic river. 



Mr. CoOLEY. I would like you to get an attorney's opinion on that 

 ruling, because the way we read this, it is exempt. It not wild and 

 scenic. It was to be used for commercial uses and was completely 

 pulled out of the bill. 



I have a copy of the bill and if is not the understanding, then 

 I would like to have some legal person on your side make a deter- 

 mination. 



Mr. Thomas. We will follow up on that. 



Mr. CoOLEY. The thing is, as I was reading through this bill, and 

 I know you have as well, I was very surprised to see that it was 

 such a bipartisan bill that was passed on the floor. 



I looked at the legislators and the Congress back to 1975 and Al 

 Uhlman; Mr. Miller, who is on this committee; Les Coyne were 

 mainly responsible for this — Mr. Gindell, were responsible for this 

 legislation, and it seems to me that the legislation now the way we 

 interpret it has turned into a bipartisan issue, and I don't think it 

 should be that way. 



I think apart from this issue, this should have been a bipartisan 

 issue, but now it has turned into something else. As I read the Sec- 

 tion 10[c] provision, I misinterpret, I guess, what the Forest Serv- 

 ice is trying to do, because as I read this, it provides that all crafts 

 must be recognized for use on the Snake River within the rec- 

 reational area, which would include motorized craft as well. 



Section 10[c] and [d] is specific, the way it is written, and it looks 

 to me as if the Forest Service through administrative rules and in- 

 terpretation is circumventing the will of Congress at the time the 

 legislation was passed. 



Mr. Thomas. I was just going back over the other part of that 

 section. Section [a] speaks about that those plans are to determine 

 the varying degrees and intensity of use for the protection of those 

 resources, and I think that is exactly what the plans are designed 

 to do. 



Mr. CoOLEY. Section [a] says the standard for use and develop- 

 ment of privately owned property within recreation which rules 

 and regulations the Secretary has made to extend he deems fea- 

 sible empowered with authority delegated him under Section 9 of 

 the act which may differ from the various parcels of land within 

 the recreation area. That is what Section [a] says. 



Mr. Laverty. Mr. Cooley, we have researched this thoroughly 

 from the legal standpoint and we did not just invent this. This has 

 been going on for quite a while. 



Mr. CoOLEY. I think it has been going on since 1970, in fact. 



