Outfitters Can’t Float Without Fees

Four outfitters who run the Upper Salmon River below Stanley will have to pay more than $13,000 if they want to float the river after Aug. 21.

Sawtooth National Recreation Area ranger Paul Ries said he needs the money to pay for monitoring a 30-mile stretch of the river used by the outfitters. Endangered chinook salmon return from the Pacific Ocean to spawn in August or September, depending on the year. Last year, no salmon returned.

Forest Service biologists believe rafts passing over spawning beds disturb the nearly extinct fish. Videotapes show that salmon dart away from their redds, or nests, when a raft passes by. Because the fish are tired, weak and battered after their 900-mile swim past eight hydroelectric dams, biologists say the less the fish are disturbed while spawning the better.

The outfitters, who learned of the new fee on Wednesday, are irate.

“This is insane. It’s like we live in Russia,” said Olivia James, owner of The River Co. “I cannot believe that this sort of thing is happening in a democracy and a free-enterprise system.”

The float-boaters, who have faced increasing regulation since the salmon were granted federal protection in 1992, say the shortened season threatens to put them out of business.

James said she does not mind paying the Idaho Department of Fish and Game $1,100 per week to watch the river for returning fish. But she does not like the idea of paying the Forest Service to police her.

“We’re being treated like second-graders and potential criminals when there’s never been any evidence that we affect the fish,” James said. “It’s ludicrous to have the Forest Service treat us like criminals, especially when they’re doing nothing to save the salmon. I feel like we’re living in a dictatorship.”