Folks - the Upper Chattooga needs your help!  Boater lobby groups are mounting a last minute national rally to pressure the U.S. Forest Service to provide expanded and unrestricted access to this fragile portion of the river. 

This late effort by the boater lobby is resulting in a much higher number of pro-boating comments over the last public comment period on this issue.  Comments are pouring in from all over the country and even from other countries.  This bodes ill for keeping the Upper Chattooga protected for future generations.  Now is the time for those of us who live here to rally for our beloved river.  This is our only congressionally designated "Wild and Scenic" river.

If you haven't commented already, please do so now, and invest a bit of your time for the health of this lovely river and the wild, natural forest it flows through. 

Issue in a nutshell:

The U.S. Forest Service has proposed to open part of the Wild and Scenic Upper Chattooga River to boating for the first time in more than 30 years (“Alternative 4” in the agency’s pre-decisional Environmental Assessment.)

This headwater portion of the river is very fragile and runs through the Ellicott Rock Wilderness. Boaters currently have legal access to over half of the Chattooga River, plus many tributaries - and they want MORE. ForestWatch feels the upper pristine stretch of this river should be preserved for wildlife and for people seeking quiet and solitude for hiking, camping, hunting, and for world-class trout fishing.

Let’s combine the power of our voices to again say NO to boating in the Upper Chattooga -- we reject the Forest Service proposal to implement Alternative 4. We reject the boater lobby's insistence on Alternative 8 for unrestricted access.

We are the voice speaking for balanced use of the river and recommend that the Forest Service should implement “Alternatives 2 or 3.” Both Alternatives 2 and 3 focus Forest Service resources on protecting the forest’s health instead of on ensuring recreation access for a small number of elite boaters. These no-boating alternatives would better protect and preserve the wild and scenic nature of the Upper Chattooga for today and for future generations.

Please comment by August 18. Instructions on how to comment are below, followed by more information on this issue for those wanting more details.

Where to send your comments: (please do all 3)

1. To the U.S. Forest Service:

Via e-mail: comments-southern-francismarion-sumter@fs.fed.us

OR Via U.S. Mail:

Sumter National Forest, USDA Forest Service
Chattooga River Project
4931 Broad River Road
Columbia, SC 29212

2. To your Federal legislators:

Copy your comments via e-mail OR fax to both U.S. Senators and your respective U.S. Representative.

• Sen. Saxby Chambliss
E-mail via website: http://chambliss.senate.gov
Fax: 202-224-0103

• Sen. Johnny Isakson
E-mail form: http://isakson.senate.gov/contact.cfm
Fax: 202-228-0724

• If you don't know who your representative is, click the link below and enter your zip code under My Elected Officials: http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/

3. To Georgia ForestWatch:

Copy your comments via e-mail to us at info@gafw.org

What to say:

As always, comments are most effective if put into your own words.

Let the Forest Service know you oppose Alternative 4, which would open the Upper Chattooga to limited boating.

Say that you support the no-boating Alternatives 2 or 3.

Browse the “talking points” below for more ideas.

 

More Info:

For a summary of the Forest Service position as well as a 160-page “pre-decisional” Environmental Assessment, visit the Forest Service website at: http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/fms/forest/projects/ChattoogaDraftEA.shtml

Talking points: We have reviewed this document, and find it to be flawed and unacceptable as written. Below are some points we will raise in the official ForestWatch response to this proposal. Feel free to use them as well.

• The proposal does not appear to ensure the solitude and other “outstandingly remarkable values” required by law to be protected over all other considerations in the Ellicott Wilderness.

• The EA and the proposed Alternative 4 (to allow limited boating)are geared toward the preferences of boaters, but ignore the needs of the many people who visit the Upper Chattooga corridor for traditional pastimes like swimming, hiking, camping, hunting, botanizing, nature photography and “getting away from it all for that rarest of experiences, solitude.”

• The Forest Service proposal for boating does not clearly commit the law enforcement and resource protection personnel necessary to regulate a new, intrusive form of recreation and to educate the public about the new rules in this part of the river corridor.

• The proposal does not consistently and properly prevent the removal from the River of large woody debris (which is essential to the natural functioning of the river and the health of fish and other aquatic life; boaters like to cut these down trees out of the way); nor does it protect the various sensitive native plant species also found in the corridor.

• Whitewater enthusiasts and “creek boaters” who are pushing hard for the new access already have miles and miles of challenging white water nearby on the 36 miles of the lower Chattooga, on Overflow and Holcomb Creeks, and on the West Fork, where boating is already legal and permitted.