 Eco Blurbs Lands for Life: Protection or Destruction of Wilderness? To remind the
government that paddlers want Ontario's wilderness
protected, hundreds of canoeists and kayakers-armed with
boats, PFDs and sign-holding paddles-hosted a
high-spirited Portage for Wilderness around the Ontario
Legislature Oct. 24. About a hundred canoes-20 of them
covered with signatures-were positioned to form a giant
pine tree in front of Queen's Park during the political
portage. Many participants drummed on canoes to enhance
the show and many held signs taped to their paddles
reading "Land for Loons Not Logging,"
"These Cuts Will Not Heal," and "No
Wilds-No Soul." - For more information, visit www.web.net/wild. -ahb Fee Demonstration Project Starts on Salmon Paddlers taking to Idaho's Main or Middle Fork of the Salmon rivers should plan on packing along a few extra five-spots in their drybags. A $5 per person per day fee-demonstration project for both rivers went into effect Jan. 1, 1999. The fee applies to all boaters using the waterways, including commercial clients and private paddlers. According to the Forest Service, money collected will be used for a variety of river corridor improvements, including repairing launch facilities, resource protection, Wilderness and environmental interpretation efforts, annual operations and resource mitigation. Users of the waterways will also be asked for suggestions as to how the money should be allocated. Approved by Congress, the fee project was enacted to test the idea of allowing money generated by user fees to be used at the site where they were collected. -edb Logging in the Grand Canyon Next time you're in the Grand Canyon, you might hear the roar of chainsaws echoing off the canyon walls as well as the roar of whitewater. Marking one of the few times a tree-clearing project has been proposed for a national park, the Grand Canyon National Park Service recently announced plans to free the Grand Canyon of dried-out old growth accumulation on the forest bottom. Paddlers, however, don't need fear extra driftwood floating alongside them. "It's not at all close to the river," says Grand Canyon Trust spokesperson Brad Ack. "It'll be 6,000 feet above up on the rim." Ack is quick to explain that the action shouldn't be construed as logging, but as restoration. "It's cutting to thin unnaturally dense stands of trees," he says. "They're dense because fire, a natural controller, has been suppressed in the area." Many conservationists feel such a move might set a precedent that could encourage similar actions in America's other national parks. Ack, however, feels the action is supported by science. "I don't think they (opponents) have a scientific leg to stand on," he says. "Science favors active restoration." He adds it's not the first time scientists have gotten involved in restoration efforts for the park. The artificial flood releases from two years ago are an example of the same attempt to save an ecosystem. "Suppressing fires is just like putting in a dam on a river," he says. "All of a sudden the natural flow of the eco-system gets stopped, and everything else is affected by it." -edb Chetco River Spared from Gold Mine River Network, a nonprofit river conservation organization in Portland, Ore., recently purchased a private mine claim on the Wild and Scenic Chetco River in southern Oregon. The $3.2 million purchase eliminates the threat of gold mining along nine miles of river in the heart of the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Siskiyou National Forest, preserving the Chetco's clear waters, unique botany and salmon fishery. Money from the federal government's Land and Water Conservation Fund will be used to return ownership of the land to the public. For whitewater paddlers making the long trek into this remote section of river, this means that streamside land will forever be legally accessible. - For more information visit www.rivernetwork.org or call (800) 423-6747. -Scott Harding Brooks Wetsuits Announces "Caring for Waterways" Contest Vancouver, B.C.'s Brooks Wetsuits announced a contest last fall to promote clean-ups at popular recreational sites along North America's oceans, lakes and rivers. More than 20 groups participated in clean-up programs in the last half of 1998, removing debris and garbage from popular waterways and submitting 500-word descriptions outlining the site's location, organizers and participants, and demographics of the site's user groups. "We saw a lot of variety in sites," says Brooks business manager Angela Lee. "It was about 50/50 between paddlers and scuba divers. The paddling entries were broken down to about half whitewater sites and half touring sites." A winner gets announced each month, with participants receiving a variety of small prizes. For more information, call (604) 986-3441 or visit www.uniserve.com/brooks. -edb Report Calls for Missouri River Habitat Restoration Washington, D.C.'s American Rivers recently released a proposal to restore the Missouri River in time for the Lewis and Clark bicentennial in 2004. "Voyage of Recovery: Restoring the Rivers of Lewis & Clark" calls for the restoration of riverside wetlands and forests, dam operations that aid wildlife and recreation, revitalized riverfronts and better livestock management. In particular, it calls for the restoration of side channels where river wildlife can feed and reproduce; and for dams to release more water in the spring to aid fish spawning and sand bar creation and less in the summer to aid nesting shorebirds and recreation. "Lewis and Clark would not recognize most of the Missouri River today," says Chad Smith, Missouri River regional representative for American Rivers. "We can't recreate the river they saw, but if we start now we can create a handful of places they would recognize by 2004." - For more information, visit www.amrivers.org. -edb
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