Jet-Boat Bill Bound For House Vote Chenoweth Measure Addresses Plan To Ban Craft In Upper Hells Canyon

The U.S. House Resources Committee has narrowly passed Republican Helen Chenoweth’s bill to guarantee jet boaters access throughout the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.

The committee voted 21-20 to send it to the House floor. Chenoweth’s spokesman, Chad Hyslop, said the full House probably will consider it in September.

“We have a lot of co-sponsors, and we are real optimistic,” he said Friday. “We are going to wait and see.”

The bill is aimed at heading off the U.S. Forest Service’s plan to ban powerboats from 21 miles of the upper canyon for 18 or 21 days each summer.

Chenoweth said she introduced the bill to clarify that both motorized and non-motorized craft are appropriate uses under the 1975 measure that created the recreation area.

“This bill doesn’t create any new rights and uses in Hells Canyon,” she said in a statement. “It simply guarantees that existing uses that were recognized under the designating legislation shall continue. It keeps bureaucrats from shutting down traditional uses of the river.”

A vote on companion legislation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, will be scheduled in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Craig spokesman Mike Tracy.

Four months ago, Forest Service officials said they would not try to ban jet boats from a 21-mile upper stretch of Hells Canyon this summer.

The agency still required owners to sign up for limited numbers of permits to run the wild section. The permit system is the first time their numbers have been limited.

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