For almost 40 years, the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act
has been protecting beautiful rivers in states across the West
– except two.
Utah and Nevada have yet to place any
rivers on the Wild and Scenic list, which was started in 1968 to
protect outstanding rivers from development. For Utah, however,
that could change within the year. The Bureau of Land Management in
Utah recently identified 30 river segments that are eligible for
designation; another 118 are still being considered. The eligible
segments include stretches of the Green River, Nine Mile Creek and
Bitter Creek.
Unlike Utah, however, Nevada has no plans
to nominate any rivers. “I suppose the main reason is that
Nevada is a very arid state and we don’t have many
rivers,” says Dante Pistone of the Nevada Division of
Environmental Protection.
The National Wild and Scenic
River System preserves the natural beauty of designated rivers
while keeping them open to the public for fishing, hiking and
rafting. “Designated rivers need to meet two criteria –
free-flowing as defined by the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act and
possessing at least one ‘outstandingly remarkable
value,’ ” says Dan Haas of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service. “Outstandingly remarkable values” are the
natural or cultural attributes that make a river worthy of
protection (for example, glaciated river canyons, historic Indian
villages, excellent water quality, or world-renowned waterfalls).
To preserve the free-flowing character of these rivers, the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission cannot license construction for
objects that would obstruct them, such as dams and powerhouses.
Across the nation, 11,409 segments of about 165 different
rivers qualify as wild and scenic. About 70 percent of them are
located in the West. Some of the best known include
California’s Big Sur River, one of the longest coastal
streams, which is lined with towering redwoods, and the Deschutes
River in Oregon, which offers excellent whitewater rafting and a
remarkable steelhead and native rainbow trout fishery.
If
and when the Utah river segments are designated wild and scenic,
their management will be turned over to the federal agencies that
manage the adjacent lands, such as the Bureau of Land Management or
U.S. Forest Service.
The wild and scenic designation
preserves the special rivers of the West, says Mark Danenhauer of
the Utah Rivers Council: “This is the only way to ensure that
my children, your children, and our grandchildren will be able to
visit these rivers and experience them in the same condition as
they are today.”
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