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Powerboats have been cutting through the rapids of the wild Snake River in Hells Canyon for the past 100 years. Statistics indicate that 91 percent of Hells Canyon visitors do it by powerboat, yet jet-boaters are under siege.
A small group called the Hells Canyon Preservation Council is attempting to eliminate the use of powerboats in the wild section of the Snake River in Hells Canyon--an action that would have a dampening effect on the economy from Lewiston south to the Boise Valley.
"One thing it has done is unify the user," said Dennis Gratton of Boise, chairman of the Hells Canyon Alliance, a newly formed group promoting shared use of the canyon. "We never said we wanted exclusive use of the river. We believe that this resource should be shared by everybody."
The wild, twisting stretch of the Snake River attracting controversy like a magnet is that 34-mile segment punctuated by sheer rock walls and frothing rapid extending below Hells Canyon Dam to Pittsburgh Landing. Powerboats have been forging through this stretch of river since the first steamboat traveled the full length the canyon in 1870. More were to follow up to the present day with the conversion to state-of-the-art jet boats which carried 20,000 visitors into the canyon in 1991.
The most pressing issue facing powerboaters is a lawsuit filed in the fall of 1992 by the Hells Canyon Preservation Council against the United States Forest Service alleging that the Forest Service has failed to promulgate regulations contained in Section 10 of the 1975 Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Act. Legal support for HCPC is being provided by the Sierra Club's Legal Defense Fund.
On the heels of the lawsuit, the HCPC has also requested an injunction that would exclude all powerboaters from the Hells Canyon NRA, Hells Canyon Dam to the Oregon-Washington line until the regulations are put in place by the Forest Service.
Section 10 of the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area Act, the part of...