Idaho might require registration for kayaks, canoes

BOISE – Only seven states – none of them in the West – require registration of nonmotorized boats such as canoes and kayaks. Yet Idaho Gov. Butch Otter is pushing for a registration requirement in his state.

“There’s probably more activity in Idaho – we’ve got the longest stretches of whitewater in the United States,” Otter said. “We have enough activity, and I think enough use of the parking lots, the docks, the launching pads, that I think it warrants taking a look at it.”

Otter has a task force studying the issue now that includes jet boaters, whitewater paddlers, state officials and legislators, and he may propose legislation next year to start registering nonmotorized boats.

If Idaho goes that route, it’ll be bucking a trend in the West. Two Western states – Alaska and Arizona – required registration for nonmotorized boats but eliminated the practice in the past eight years.

“The paddlers were complaining it was onerous and ridiculous. We almost lost the boating program over it,” said Alaska boating safety administrator Jeff Johnson.

Alaska had no state boating program until 2000; boaters there had to register their boats with the Coast Guard. At the same time, the state had a boating fatality rate 144 times the national average.

Johnson said power boating interests finally agreed to a state boating program, complete with boat-safety laws, educational programs and boat registration, if nonmotorized boats longer than 10 feet would be included, too.

“If that’s what it took to get Alaskans to agree to pass that law, that’s what we went along with,” Johnson said. But when the law came up for reauthorization four years later, paddlers fought back, and nonmotorized boat registration was killed in 2004.

Arizona had long required registration for all sizes and types of boats, but in 2000 it eliminated nonmotorized boats from the program, in part because administrative costs were exceeding revenues.

Arizona watercraft registration supervisor Madelynn Fenske said the biggest problem was smaller, used canoes and kayaks for which owners didn’t keep current paperwork. The state had to send certified letters to the vessels’ last known owners and go through other steps to register those craft.

“It was a lot to do for a boat that might be worth $10,” she said. “Our fees are charged by the length of the watercraft, so the smaller boats didn’t bring in as much revenue.”

For Otter, the issue is philosophical.

“It’s user pay,” he said. “I see a value in establishing that idea in government, where if you’re going to use the facility, you’re going to be the one that pays.”

Idaho kayaker Rob Lesser, founder of the Idaho Whitewater Association, says he has no problem with that philosophy. But he says whitewater paddlers don’t use the facilities that Idaho’s motor boat registration fees support, like concrete launches and docks – and they don’t want to pay for facilities they’ll never use.

“Most nonmotorized boaters, even if you have a sea kayak and you’re putting in on Lake Coeur d’Alene, you can go down and basically put it in almost anyplace,” Lesser said, “because you can carry it on your shoulder and just set it down and go for it. We don’t need the facilities that you would to launch a powerboat.”

He also noted that Idaho whitewater enthusiasts already pay user fees for their most popular haunts, including special fees for parking areas along the Payette River – which run $20 a year or $3 a day – and $4-a-person daily permit fees to float the Main and Middle forks of the Salmon River. Those fees, however, don’t go to the state – they go to federal agencies like the U.S. Forest Service.

Otter says nonmotorized boat users still incur costs to the state for services like search-and-rescue and police protection.

Rep. George Sayler, D-Coeur d’Alene, is one of three state legislators on Otter’s task force. Sayler said, “It’s to see if we can find a resolution to the perceived, I guess, injustice the motorized boaters feel that the nonmotorized vessels are not paying their way in terms of search-and-rescue and use of facilities.”

The state parks department says Idaho had 45 boating-related fatalities from 2002 to 2007, and 19 of those, or 42 percent, involved nonmotorized boating.

Sayler said: “I have a canoe, and sometimes I use a boat dock or a restroom at a dock, that sort of thing. So I’m sure there are some minimal costs that would be valid for the nonmotorized users. How much and how that would happen, I don’t know at this point.”

Among the complications: Kayakers such as Lesser routinely have lots of boats – he says he has “20-plus” – but only use one at a time. Applying registration fees to each of those boats would add up quickly.

Otter said any proposal his administration develops would go out for public hearings before it’s finalized. “I’m not going to suggest what the task force is going to come up with,” he said. “All sides are going to be well heard.”

He added, “It may well be they’ll come back and say, ‘Forget it, there’s no way you can manage it.’ That may well be the result.”

Johnson, the Alaska boating safety administrator, said his state saw only about 6,000 nonmotorized boats register when it had the requirement.

Since the requirement was repealed, about 2,000 have continued to register their nonmotorized boats, paying a $10 fee for a three-year registration.

Johnson said the registration makes the boats easier to recover if lost or stolen, and means missing boaters can be quickly identified if their boats are found. “For $3 a year, it’s a pretty good insurance policy,” he said.