Hells Canyon boating fee proposal caught public off guard

The citizen’s council with the power to decide if a Hells Canyon river fee should move forward learned about the proposal more than 18 months before the general public.

Officials on the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest first floated their desire to implement a user fee for rafters and jet boaters to the John Day-Snake River Resource Advisory Council in November 2014. The public learned of the proposal last month with the announcement of a series of public meetings on the topic.

The agency is proposing a per person, per trip fee of $5-10. It would be applicable to a 70-mile stretch of the Snake River between Hells Canyon Dam and Cache Creek and raise an estimated $170,000 to $350,000 annually.

The money would be used to maintain facilities like boat docks and restrooms, to restore historic structures and to augment the frequency of river patrols.

Jake Lubera, deputy ranger at the forest’s Wallowa Mountain Office in Enterprise, Oregon, said the resource advisory council, also known as a RAC, was briefed on the proposal ahead of the general public because of the protocols in the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act.

Forest officials had to ask the council if it would be willing to consider the fee and they wanted to get the answer before devoting effort to fully develop the proposal.

Fleshing out the details, which included the development of communication and business plans, took longer than expected, Lubera said, and contributed to the delay in bringing the idea to the public. But the lack of any hint that a fee proposal was in the making caught many off guard.

Sen. Mike Crapo and Sen. Jim Rich, both Republicans, released the following statement this week: “This fee increase proposal comes as a surprise to both Idahoans and Congress and we need to see the justifications for such an increase. The proper way to work through this proposal is for adequate public hearings, both in Idaho and before the appropriate committees of jurisdiction in Congress. We expect no less.”

Crapo spokesman Lindsay Nothern said the senators are sensitive to the funding constraints the agency is facing and are working on legislation to address them by lowering its annual firefighting expenses. But he said river users also face increasing costs.

“When folks who want to use the resources, in this case the river, are going to be asked to pay more, we want to see the justification,” he said.

Kara Hauck, spokeswoman for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of eastern Washington, said the Republican congresswoman has heard about the fee proposal from constituents and believes the public should have additional opportunities to speak with forest officials before a decision is made.

Sandra Mitchell, executive director of the Hells Canyon Alliance, said the agency’s proposal would have been better received had it been vetted with river users much earlier. She expects boaters, through the public comment process, will come up with better alternatives.

“I think what has happened is the Forest Service has come up with an answer and nobody is quite sure what the question is and we need some time to analyze that,” she said. “I do believe the Forest Service is going to understand that and be willing to go down that road and in the end we are going to come up with a much better answer than the one they gave us.”

Lubera said the agency is willing to listen.

“We would like to make sure folks recognize that no decision has been made and their comments will drive the decision and that is not a Wallowa-Whitman (National Forest) decision but how it will be presented to the RAC,” he said.