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Individuals and organizations are lobbying Congress to pass 

 legislation to further their own personal interests, over the 

 interests of the public at large, in almost every area of 

 recreation. Recreation has become a big business in the United 

 States and opportunists have seized the opportunity to take 

 advantage of it where ever possible. Backed with big money from 

 organizations like the Bullitt Foundation, the Sierra Club and 

 others, these organizations have been able to buy media coverage 

 and attention. Commercial, environmental phonies, operating for 

 profit at the expense of the American taxpayers, are winning the 

 battle to eliminate those who are not in agreement with their 

 ideas from public recreation areas. 



Unfortunately, I started to find more and more of my time 

 being spent in the political arena of river running instead of on 

 the water. I started to attend meetings and write editorials in 

 the local media concerning river access. Today, I spend far more 

 time working to keep my right to recreational access on the 

 rivers I love than I spend actually enjoying them. 



Hells Canyon has been a prime example of the very situation 

 I have described so far. The U. S. Forest Service has been 

 unable to manage the area in a manner that would be fair to all. 

 The main reason for this is that there are a number of groups and 

 individuals who want it their way only. They believe that they 

 are somehow entitled to exclusive use of this public domain and 

 they have set their minds on a no-compromise mission to eliminate 

 every individual and every form of recreation that does not fit 

 into their personal goal for Hells Canyon. The Forest Service 

 has been ineffective in its management efforts because it has 

 attempted to make satisfy all parties involved and has not 

 concentrated its efforts toward a plan for the canyon that is 

 fair and considers the best interests of the public at large. If 

 the environmental and cultural aspects of the Hells Canyon area 

 can not be protected while providing fair and equal access to the 

 public, perhaps the whole area should be made off limits to 

 everyone . 



The Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Act provides a 

 very good guideline for management of the area by the Forest 

 Service. This act specified the congress i ona 1 1 y recognized, 

 valid uses of the public domain. One of those recognized uses 

 was motorized water craft. S. 1374 and H.R. 2568 will re- 

 establish this, and other valid uses of the national recreation 

 area, as intended by Congress. 



Now is the time to act! Congress has the vehicle at hand to 

 allow the Forest Service to dispense with all the rhetoric and 

 argument and to provide it with an opportunity to put together a 

 valid, fair and workable management plan for Hells Canyon. 



Those who oppose this legislation claim to be advocates of 

 equal river access for all user groups. In reality, however, 

 each openly advocates the exclusion of any user who is not in 

 compliance with their narrow elitist conception of a politically 

 correct river user. There are many whj still believe that the 

 battle in Hells Canyon is over regulation of motorized use. In 

 reality, the battle is o«l»r elimination of such use. 



The American public is growing weary of the plutocratic 



