120 



Most jet boats used for recreation on white water rivers are powered by automo- 

 tive-type engines adapted to marine use; tlie engines are linked directly to the pump, 

 with no gearing system. Jet boats found on the Snake River vary from 18 to 42 feet in 

 length and cruise on flat water segments at 28 to 35 miles per hour. The small, fam- 

 ily-type boats have one motor; the larger commercial craft have two or three. Hulls 

 are relatively flat bottomed and made from tough welded aluminum. Engineering and 

 design advances over the past few years have produced an attractive, safe, tough, 

 maneuverable and quiet craft suitable for the family or the most demanding commer- 

 cial applications. They are at home on flat water lakes or running the Snake's most 

 challenging rapids. 



The Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Act (PL 94-199) 



On December 31, 1975, President Ford signed Public Law 94-199, designating the 

 Hells Canyon National Recreation Area (HCNRA). The purpose of this law, as out- 

 lined in the Act, was to "assure that the natural beauty, and historical and archeologi- 

 cal values of the Hells Canyon area and the seventy-one-mile segment of the Snake 

 River between Hells Canyon Dam and the Oregon-Washington border, together with 

 certain portions of its tributaries and adjacent lands, are preserved for this and future 

 generations, and that the recreational and ecologic values and public enjoyment of the 

 area are thereby enhanced — ." Section 7 of the Act instructs the Secretary to "admin- 

 ister the recreation area in accordance with the laws, rules and regulations applicable 

 to the national forests for public outdoor recreation" in a manner compatible with 7 

 listed objectives. Finally, section 10 of the Act instructs the Secretary to promulgate 

 such rules and regulations as he deems necessary to accomplish purposes of the Act, 

 including "provision for the control of the use and number of motorized and nonmo- 

 torized river craft: Provided, That the use of such craft is hereby recognized as a valid 

 use of the Snake River within the recreation area — ." 



Sixty seven and one half miles of the Snake River were designated imder the Wild 

 and Scenic Rivers Act and 4 miles within the recreation area identified as study. The 

 Act placed some special provisions on the wild and scenic designation, including the 

 regulatory authority of section 10, the validity language of that same section and 

 direction conceming planning. 



The original HCNRA Act and later amendments designated about 215,000 acres of 

 the recreation area as wildemess. The one half mile wide (average width) river corri- 

 dor, however, was carefully excluded from the wildemess, even where it was bordered 

 by wildemess on both sides. This was in recognition of the river's long tradition of 

 motorized access and the Act's validity language. 



If Congress had intended that a wildemess experience be provided in the wild 

 section of the Snake, it would not have excluded the river corridor from Hells Canyon 

 Wildemess. On the Salmon River the wildemess boundary comes to the river and 



