[Awclist] [Fwd: RRFW Riverwire - NO BLASTING OF LOGJAM AND STRAINER THIS YEAR]

[Thomas Robey]

RRFW Riverwire – NO BLASTING OF LOGJAM AND STRAINER THIS YEAR

May 15, 2007

Last year’s logjam at Pistol Creek on the Middle Fork of the Salmon 
River has rematerialized and has been joined by a riverwide strainer (a 
log at river level) just above Pistol Creek at Lake Creek. Unlike last 
year, the US Forest Service says it has no plans to blast apart the logjam.

USFS officials stated that last July the logjam built up overnight while 
200 rafters were upstream without knowing it was there, creating the 
difficulty of informing boaters. Some noncommercial boaters simply 
portaged the obstruction and one outfitter hired pack animals to move 
equipment and people around. USFS wilderness workers used dynamite to 
blow up the logjam within a few days.

This year’s logjam appears to consist of fewer logs but still blocks the 
river completely making the rapid unrunnable. Lake Creek’s drainage 
area, ravaged by fires in previous years and littered with dead trees, 
flooded and pushed the logs and a debris pile into the river overnight 
during a storm.

This spring the problem was repeated and compounded when athe live tree 
fell across the river just below Lake Creek. The Middle Fork’s channel 
at Lake Creek (RM 21.5*) has substantially changed with new bars and 
newly exposed sharp rocks adding to the problems. Higher water will 
change it again during the runoff period, so river runners need to 
carefully inspect this portion of river via trails before deciding on a 
strategy throughout the season. Pre-season river runners have lined Lake 
Creek and portaged Pistol Creek (RM 22.7*) or portaged both.

The USFS recently released a statement saying, in part, "It is the 
responsibility of every boater to be aware of conditions on the rivers 
and take appropriate precautions including being heads-up and scouting 
the rivers. It may mean portaging or lining your boats around hazards. 
The Salmon-Challis National Forest will not be clearing obstacles from 
the rivers to assure passage for boaters."

“Self-guided river runners could have an unprecedented wilderness 
experience this year” observes Jo Johnson of River Runners for 
Wilderness, “Since many commercial outfitters are unlikely to march 
their passengers and equipment around the obstacles if the USFS stands 
by the commitment to let wilderness be wild, just like Arizona’s Salt 
River before it was blasted.”

Indian Creek at RM 25.2 is an alternate launch site where trips can 
enter below the problem area via plane shuttle and it is expected that 
at least some commercial outfitters will use this option.

On August 3, 2006 the Missoula, Montana-based national activist group 
Wilderness Watch sent a letter to then USFS Chief Dale Bosworth 
requesting a formal review of the agency's response to last year’s 
dynamiting incident. The Middle Fork is a designated Wild and Scenic 
River in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.


Wilderness Watch wrote, "The decision to blow up the logjam raises 
important questions about Wilderness and the Forest Service's 
stewardship. There is little doubt that other natural events of similar 
or greater magnitude will occur in designated Wilderness in the years 
ahead, and that managers will be confronted with these challenges many 
times. For that reason, the response to this event serves as an 
important learning opportunity for present and future managers, as well 
as for the general public."

Pictures of the strainer and logjam as of April 27, 2007 can be seen 
(scroll down the page) at: 
http://restwhenyoudie.com/(21)april_27th_2007.htm 
<http://restwhenyoudie.com/%2821%29april_27th_2007.htm>_

_Read USFS press release:
_http://www.fs.fed.us/r4/sc/recreation/whitewaterrafting/mfriver/mf_logs_spring.shtml_

*/Guide to the Middle Fork and Main Salmon Rivers, Idaho/, by Duwain 
Whitis and Barbara Vinson, Rivermaps, 2007. Available through the store 
at www.rrfw.org/store.php <http://www.rrfw.org/store.php>.

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