[White-water] Molalla, Chetco, Grand Ronde

['Megi Morishita' via white-water@peak.org]

Oregon's Scenic Waterway program protects rivers similarly to the Federal Wild and Scenic Act.  Oregon Parks and Rec is currently considering three rivers for protection including Molalla, Chetco, and Grand Ronde.  They determine eligibility based on public feedback, so it is important for paddlers to speak up for the value rivers provide for them.  Please access the online surveys by clicking on the link below, and forward to your friends for them to provide feedback as well!!  

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Article/view/articleid/32063/

And don't forget to complete the Oregon State Marine Board online survey as well.  They are interested in assessing fees to non-motorized boaters, but we need to speak up to find out how fees will go to benefit non-motorized boaters rather than be used to build boat marinas and ramps.  Questions I will be bringing up at this evening's public forum include how OSMB will advocate for non-motorized boaters if they are assessing us fees (issues such as advocating for river access at bridge sites such as on the Sandy River, including boater safety/fish passage/ease of portaging when rebuilding dam sites such as on the N Santiam, negotiating with ODOT to keep roads open for access to rivers such as on the Salmonberry, etc).  Currently, OSMB is not involved in these sorts of issues, so the question is whether they would be advocating for us if they were assessing us fees to provide us a service (and, obviously, if not, then we would oppose the assessment of fees to a user group not receiving any benefit from such fees).  Just some thoughts as you access the online surveys and provide useful feedback!  

http://www.americanwhitewater.org/content/Article/view/articleid/32054/

I believe all four surveys are open for another two weeks....

-megi

Sent from my iPad