“FORWARD CASTING” Important Dates - See you there!

Jan 1 HAPPY NEW SEASON!

Jan 17 (Tues) Chapter Meeting, 6:30 PM, Clayton Presbyterian Church

Program: Jeff Durniak – How and Where to catch ‘Really Big’uns’ in GA Public Waters

Final Arrangements for Rabun Rendezvous

Jan 21 (Sat) 19^th Annual - Rabun Rendezvous, 2 PM Set-up,

5 PM Social, 6:30 PM Dinner

We Need All the Help We Can Get

Jan 24 (Tues) Annual Meeting – Chattooga River Coalition, 9 AM

Stumphouse R.D. Office, Mountain Rest, SC.

Jan 24 (Tues) BOD Meeting, 6:30 PM, Clayton Presbyterian Church

Feb 4 (Sat) Annual Planning Meeting, 8 AM Breakfast Meeting at the Dillard House

Feb 21 (Tues) Chapter Meeting, 6:30 PM, Clayton Presbyterian Church

Program: Mike Crane - Explain the Plans for User Suryeys on the Upper Chattooga River

Feb 28 (Tues) BOD Meeting, 6:30 PM, Clayton Presbyterian Church

REMEMBER TROUT CAMP! June 12-17th! We need you to mentor our campers – put it on your calendar!

FLY OF THE MONTH

by Terry Rivers

SAN JUAN WORM

I GUESS IF I DID NOT HAVE ANYTHING IN MY FLY BOX ON A D.H STREAM ANYWHERE IN THIS AREA, I WOULD DEFINITELY WANT THIS ONE IN A VARIETY OF COLORS, ESPECIALLY DURING THE LEAF FALL.

IT WAS A SURE THING DURING OCTOBER THIS YEAR.

HOT PINK WAS A GREAT COLOR THIS YEAR. THIS PATTERN IS VERY EASY TO TIE.

JUST COVER HOOK WITH THREAD AND BIND DOWN CHENILLE IN SEVERAL PLACES. AFTERWARDS BURN ENDS WITH LIGHTER.

HOOK: SCUD HOOK #12

THREAD: COLOR TO MATCH WORM.

BODY: ULTRA CHENILLE

(COLOR OF CHOICE)

Visitor Use Capacity Analysis

Upper Chattooga River

An essay by Doug Adams, a Chattooga backcountry angler since 1955

“Fishermen and women, hunters, hikers and backpackers complaining that there [sic] solitude will be lost. - - Little selfish if you ask me!” - - from a post by Carolina Yaker on the Sumter NF Bulletin Board on December 3, 2005.

Why shouldn't the boaters be granted access to the section of the Chattooga River upstream of the Highway 28 Bridge?

Let us visualize it is a Saturday in April and the river is running full, up 4 inches from a brief rain shower in Cashiers last evening. The weather is warm, and some schools and colleges are on spring break. In the 12 miles of backcountry between Burrell’s Ford and Highway 28, a mama black bear has brought her two cubs to feed in the riparian area and to cross the river at Salt Trough. A bobcat stalks a rabbit on a gravel bar in the Boulevard. An osprey patrols the Rocky Gorge for trout to feed her nestlings in a tall dead hemlock next to the river. A great blue heron patiently stalks a sub-adult trout in Hog Wallow.

Hog Wallow

A Boy Scout troop from Clayton is backpack camping, fishing, wading and swimming at the Sims Fields. A family with two teenage daughters from Toledo, Ohio, is camped at their favorite site near the Sawmill Pool. An elderly couple from Rabun Gap has hiked to the Nugget to view, identify, and photograph wild-flowers. Six college students from Wisconsin are camped at the Nicholson Fields on a 3-day hiking, camping, and fishing trip. A church youth group from Aiken is picnicking near Ira Branch. There are a couple of dozen day-hikers with picnic lunches in daypacks quietly moving through the backcountry on the trails.

A trio of dedicated birders from Syracuse, New York, has hiked down to The Steps in hopes of spotting a Swainson’s warbler.

The Steps

A university professor and researcher along with two grad students from Knoxville concerned with biodiversity have hiked off-trail to the Square Turn area searching for a reported colony of the federally endangered small whorled begonia. In their trek to the river they discover a previously unknown colony of the rare Oconee bells. At streamside they sit quietly for 45 minutes watching a pair of minks searching the shallow waters for crawfish. A hiking club from Seneca is on a through-hike, picking up litter along the trail. Two wildlife photographers from Asheville are at Big Bend Falls, where they have fortunately encountered a litter of otter pups with their mother teaching them how to fish the plunge pool.

Plunge Pool Below Big Bend Falls

About 70 backcountry anglers (averaging about 6 per mile) have entered the 12 miles of river by hiking in from the 6 access routes. Most live within an hour of the river, although a significant numbers came from Atlanta, Greenville, Asheville, Columbia, and Athens. Some have traveled from as far away as St Petersburg, Little Rock, St Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati, and Pittsburgh. For a few it is their first visit to this beautiful and spectacular stream. Two fathers brought their excited teenage kids on long-anticipated fishing outings. A grandfather and his 40-year-old son are introducing his 12-year-old grandson to the joys of trout and places where trout are found. A few anglers fish in pairs, but most fish alone. Today a college kid is learning the secrets of the river from a 70-year-old mentor who has fished here for over 50 years.

By hiking along the trail system, all of these visitors and small groups have spaced themselves along the river to achieve their personal envelopes of solitude. This separation also provides the anglers the opportunity to fish for trout that have not recently been disturbed by other visitors. The caddis flies are hatching, and some of the larger trout are beginning to feed on emergers.

Lower Steps

A boater from Columbia and another from Marietta rendezvous at the Highway 28 river access site and drop off a vehicle. There is only one other vehicle there. They travel to Burrell’s Ford, where about 45 vehicles are already parked. They park along the road on the Georgia side and put their boats in under the bridge about 10 am. As they leave the congestion of the bridge, one boater’s paddle tangles and breaks the spinning line of a “put and take” angler. Insults are hurled back and forth, then a fist-size rock splashes near one of the boats. As the boaters speed down-river they pass 7 young children from two families wading, swimming, and playing with inner tubes in the Ford Pool. One mother yells, ”Hey, don’t get so damn close!”

The boaters hear loud country music coming from a CD player and someone chopping firewood in the campground. Several old men and women are sitting in folding camp chairs fishing in the Black Hole. One old man yells, ”Git out of here, you’uns scaring the fish!” One boater tells the other, “This place is just like a circus; these people have no respect for the river.” The other replies, “These people would leave if the Forest Service stopped stocking those farm-raised trout.”

Finally, the boaters leave civilization behind and enter the solitude of the Upper Chattooga backcountry. They are jacked from being on a seldom-running creek. At 4 pm they take out at Highway 28. They load up and drive back to Burrell’s Ford, still pumped up from their trip through the spectacular backcountry and with memories of the challenges they met and overcame at Big Bend Falls, the Sims Shoals, the Big’un Hole, and the Rocky Gorge. As they begin their long drive back to their respective homes, they reflect on their 13 years of struggles with the Forest Service concerning management issues on the Chattooga River. They enjoyed their trip and marvel at the solitude and beauty of the section they floated today. They are proud of the roles they played in opening up this area for year-round private boating.

They are completely oblivious to what they left behind in their wakes. For 12 miles they shattered the solitude of almost every person and creature they encountered, even though each encounter lasted only a few seconds. At the Big Step, the Swainson’s warbler spooked as the boaters hollered when they ran the chute. At Big Bend Falls, as the boaters found a “play spot,” the otter family left and the wildlife photographers didn’t get their photos. As the boats approached Salt Trough, the startled mama bear hustled her cubs back up the same slope from which they had just come. Most of the Boy Scouts thought it was cool watching the boaters run the Sims Shoals 3 or 4 times, but the boys trying to catch trout for a merit badge requirement were disappointed.

Sims Shoals

When the boaters came out of the Rocky Gorge, their loud excited talk scared off the bobcat. As they came around the Square Turn, the minks scurried into their holes under root wads. At the head of the Long Pool, a mile up the “catch and release” Delayed Harvest section, an 83-year-old angler from Lakemont had spotted a rising brown trout and was stalking what would have been the biggest trout of his lifetime, when the boaters torpedoed right through the “sweet-spot”.

A Solitary Angler in the Delayed Harvest Section

Today, just two boaters disturbed about 60 anglers as they passed through every “sweet-spot” for 12 miles, putting down the trout anywhere from several minutes to a few hours. Some anglers had to move out of the way and reel in; others were startled by the sudden appearance of the boats. Most backcountry visitors experienced a negative reaction to their brief encounter with the 2 boaters, encounters known to Forest Service planners as “user conflicts.”

Meanwhile, two young men have bought a 16-foot aluminum canoe and 2 paddles at a yard sale that morning in Greenville. At 2 pm their girl-friends drop them and their canoe off at Burrell’s Ford with a Styrofoam cooler full of longneck beers. They are wearing nothing but cut-offs and flip-flops. They tell the girls to be at the 28 Bridge at about 7 o’clock. Most of the backcountry visitors they encounter try to tell them that serious whitewater was ahead and they couldn’t possibly float through. They laugh, yell insults, and drink their beer. They break the empty bottles on the rocks, and drag their noisy canoe over the ledges, leaving gouged-off aluminum residue. As they float by the two teenagers from Toledo sunning on rocks at the Sawmill Pool, one man whistles. The other hollers, “Hey babes, come on - - - let us give you a ride.” They both laugh and head downstream for the Lower Steps. For the family, the encounter ruins an otherwise fine day.

At 10:30 pm the girl-friends called Oconee County Rescue from a private residence in Mountain Rest. The Mountain Rest Unit of the rescue squad has been out all morning searching for 3 high school boys that put in Friday morning at the Highway 28 river access site. One of the boys’ father was waiting to pick them up at Earl’s Ford. Their Wal*Mart raft tore on a snag and the rescue squad found them, cold and wet, about 10 am Saturday huddled under a white pine near Big Shoals.

The rescuers know right where to look for the 2 guys with the canoe. They get this call about twice per month now, from April through September. About 7 am Sunday morning, the search and rescue team and the swiftwater body recovery team hike to Big Bend Falls prepared for either rescue or recovery, whichever may be required. These young men are fortunate; one has a sprained ankle and the other a broken arm. They are hypothermic, lying under a rock shelf on the Georgia side, when the rescuers reach them. The rescuers have to cut another wide path through the rhododendron and mountain laurel, enabling them to extract the men strapped in rescue baskets. The canoe is wrapped around the center rock in the upper pool; the paddles, foam cooler, and flip-flops are downstream somewhere.

Upper Pool – Big Bend Falls

Next fall, the Forest Service will schedule the fire-fighting helicopter to meet with ground crews to extract all of the watercraft lodged in the Upper Chattooga River from this one season.

On that one day, about 100 backcountry visitors and volunteer rescuers experienced some level of user conflict due to encounters with just 3 boats. Numerous wild creatures were startled, their normal routine disrupted. Streamside flora was destroyed. Two men were life-flighted to the Greenville General Hospital and will not return to their jobs for several weeks. The heart of the backcountry was littered with another broken canoe and its contents. Taxpayers were burdened with another rescue, recovery, and clean-up.

Rabun TU & the Georgia TU Council Position Statement

The Forest Service planners had the proper solution for angler-boater conflict resolution in 1976, and “zoning,” by maintaining the boating ban, is still the proper solution today. It has achieved solitude and harmony for visitors on the Upper Chattooga for almost 30 years. This unique solitude experience is shared without conflict among traditional backcountry visitors such as anglers, hikers, backpackers, bird watchers, swimmers, waterfall viewers, and nature lovers. For the anglers, there is nowhere else they can go in the East that has the size and volume to permit quality trout fishing in a spectacular backcountry setting that is boating-free. The backcountry visitors want to preserve this unique resource of solitude and protect the natural resources of the only section of the Chattooga that has not been damaged by conflict and management for too many user groups. “Zoning” the space to ensure physical separation of visitors with differing and conflicting ways of experiencing the river and the environment is proper management; and it is also what is best for the future of the Upper Chattooga River.

Rocky Gorge

“When users with (a) high personal attachment to an activity, (b) high personal attachment to the resource, (c) specific and focused ways of experiencing the environment, and/or (d) low tolerance for other users encounter users with different beliefs and behaviors, there is ample potential for conflict.”

“Streams and whitewater—Water attracts a wide variety of visitors, including swimmers, viewers of fish, anglers, and users of muscle- and motor-powered watercraft. The possibilities of conflict are obvious. For the most part, all the uses just listed are incompatible with one another.”

“Land managers, therefore, are being forced to examine more closely the question of access and who gets what, when, and where. Early detection of user conflicts and effective conflict resolution depend on understanding where and how conflicts arise. Resolving a conflict in its initial stages before users ally themselves with larger, better-organized interest groups helps to avoid costly political and legal actions.”

“Conflict resolution may involve both zoning and education. When the source of conflict is goal interference, it is more appropriate to consider zoning by time, space, or activity. Zoning can ensure that different types of users are physically separated.”

(Quote excerpts from The Southern Forest Resource Assessment; Southern Research Station, USDA Forest Service, dated Oct. 2002; report 4.5 titled Potential Conflicts Between Different Forms of Recreation). For the complete report, click on: http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/sustain/draft/socio6/socio6-09.htmir

Q & A

Q. Is the controversy over the Forest Service management of the Upper Chattooga River still about the locals (anglers) vs. the outsiders (boaters) as it was in the early ‘70s?

A. No, that’s not it at all. Actually, there are many stakeholders that support the existing zoning of the Upper Chattooga River. The Forest Service has identified the follow user groups that generally support the continuation of the 30-year zoning arrangement:

Day Hiking (some of whom also are birding, swimming, picnicking, fishing, wildlife viewing, nature study, wildflower viewing, plant identification, wading, snorkeling, research surveys, and photography)

Backpacking (some of whom also are fishing, photography, nature study, wildlife viewing, wildflower viewing, and plant identification)

Backcountry Angling (some of whom also are hiking, backpacking, camping, nature study, wildlife observation, and photography)

Frontcountry Angling (some of whom also are camping, swimming, wading, and picnicking)

Frontcountry Relaxation (some of whom also are waterfall viewing, nature appreciation, and picnicking)

Frontcountry Swimming (some of whom also are picnicking)

Hunting (some of whom also are hiking, backpacking, and camping)

River Ecosystem Conservation - Wildlife and Resource (for an explanation, see the Q & A on the next page)

Emergency Medical Care Personnel (including search, rescue, recovery, and swiftwater recovery)

There were two classes of boaters identified as stakeholders by the Forest Service, Adventure-Focused Boating (including the organization American Whitewater) and Scenery Focused Boating. Both oppose the boating ban. Unfortunately, the Inexperienced Boating (a. k. a. Bubba Boaters) have not been identified or represented in the stakeholder process.

Some of the organizations that support the Forest Service's present zoning include National TU, the GA & SC TU councils, numerous TU chapters, several hiking clubs, SC Wildlife Federation, GA Wildlife Federation's Camo Coalition, GA Outdoor News magazine, SC Sierra Club, GA ForestWatch, SC ForestWatch, Chattooga River Coalition, The Highlands Biological Foundation, Whiteside Cove Association, Chattooga Conservancy, Oconee County Rescue, Rabun County Rescue, SC DNR, and GA DNR.

"Like the finest umbilicus, casting your line into water joins you to it, the currents speak to your bones in iced tongues, the loam perfume of conifer rot and mud attunes your nose to the local biology.

You taste its chemistry, wash your ears in its sweet white noise, let it take you back to a time before words and teach you things language never could."
From I Don't Know Why I Swallowed The Fly by Jessica Maxwell

Q & A

Q. What do you mean by “River Ecosystem Conservation - Wildlife and Resource” as an Upper Chattooga user group?

A. Butch Clay of South Carolina ForestWatch expressed this very well in his written comments to the Forest Service:

Part 1 of a 3 part Series (Editor’s note: Our thanks to Butch Clay for permission to reprint here.)

Name: Butch Clay; Mountain Rest, SC Message Subject: Recreation Use Form, Visitor Capacity Analysis, Upper Chattooga River

Describe the specific concerns you have about how other recreation users in the area may affect your trips.

My central concerns, with respect to the issue at hand, are that river floaters who have gained easy access into the Chattooga backcountry will spook the game, or intrude upon the wilderness retreat experience of those who prefer to hike or wade in, rather than paddle. Most Chattooga boaters in my experience, in addition to being sometimes superbly gifted paddlers, are usually very aware and appreciative of the kind of wildness that survives (mostly) only in the headwaters.

Nevertheless, this initiative will bring easy access into stretches of the Chattooga that hitherto have survived as defacto wilderness refuge cores for wildlife. Such places are exceedingly rare these days, and should be preserved. To the extent that some reaches of the headwaters are still wild, they are so because they are not much visited and have become wild sanctuaries. The value of such places to wildlife and to wildlife lovers in this increasingly overcrowded part of the country can hardly be overstated. It does not take much human influx to compromise these fragile values, and the current system of limiting access to foot travel seems to be just enough to allow wilderness and wildlife refuge qualities to survive in the headwaters, which have not survived to as great a degree below Highway 28.

Moreover, this initiative could in fact bring LOTS OF PEOPLE crowding in from parts distant just to run the whitewater, who might neither know much about nor appreciate the special qualities of the river stretches they are paddling, and who might not be as respectful or as appreciative of the rare uniqueness of this river as most (if not all) local Chattooga boaters would usually be.

Wilderness loving boaters would thereby lose equally as much as non-boaters would lose the wilderness values.

The result of that development would be, to my mind, a tragic diminishment of the wild and scenic river values that caused this river to be designated in the first place. The influx of surfing traffic would render the Chattooga headwaters a little bit less like the uniquely wild Chattooga headwaters we now have—and would too often make it, instead, a good bit more like the paddling rodeo circus of the Ocoee or the Nantahala.

In this step, stakeholders identify the types of recreation uses they would like to see happen on the river and describe desirable conditions for conducting those activities. Responses are rolled up into a matrix that identifies the different types of users and what a good experience would be (social conditions); an understanding of environmental settings, characteristics, and potential impacts (resource conditions); and some initial indications of what it would take to manage for these experiences (managerial conditions).

Part 2 of 3 in the next issue of TIGHT LINES

“Resource conditions (i.e.: an understanding of environmental settings, characteristics, and potential impacts.)”

Excerpts from the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Act Click on: http://www.nps.gov/rivers/wsract.html

Congressional declaration of policy.

(b) It is hereby declared to be the policy of the United States that certain selected rivers of the Nation which, with their immediate environments, possess outstandingly remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, or other similar values, shall be preserved in free-flowing condition, and that they and their immediate environments shall be protected for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations.

Management direction.

SECTION 10. (a) Each component of the national wild and scenic rivers system shall be administered in such manner as to protect and enhance the values which caused it to be included in said system without, insofar as is consistent therewith, limiting other uses that do not substantially interfere with public use and enjoyment of these values. In such administration primary emphasis shall be given to protecting its aesthetic, scenic, historic, archaeologic, and scientific features. Management plans for any such component may establish varying degrees of intensity for its protection and development, based on the special attributes of the area.

(b) Any portion of a component of the national wild and scenic rivers system that is within the national wilderness preservation system, as established by or pursuant to the Act of September 3, 1964 (78 Stat. 890; 16 U.S.C., ch. 23),³⁹ shall be subject to the provisions of both the Wilderness Act and this Act with respect to preservation of such river and its immediate environment, and in case of conflict between the provisions of these Acts the more restrictive provisions shall apply.

Reservation of State and Federal jurisdiction and responsibilities; access to and across wild and scenic rivers.

SECTION 13. (a) Nothing in this Act shall affect the jurisdiction or responsibilities of the States with respect to fish and wildlife. Hunting and fishing shall be permitted on lands and waters administered as parts of the system under applicable State and Federal laws and regulations unless, in the case of hunting, those lands or waters are within a national park or monument. The administering Secretary may, however, designate zones where, and establish periods when, no hunting is permitted for reasons of public safety, administration, or public use and enjoyment and shall issue appropriate regulations after consultation with the wildlife agency of the State or States affected.

Editor’s note: The W&SRA says specifically that hunting and fishing shall be permitted on lands and waters administered as parts of the system. The W&SRA also says the States have the jurisdiction or responsibilities with respect to fish and wildlife. The W&SRA directs the Agency (in this case the USFS) to protect and enhance the values which caused the stream to be included and the primary emphasis shall be given to protecting its aesthetic, scenic, historic, archaeologic, and scientific features (it did not say recreational). Most of the Chattooga above the Highway 28 Bridge is prescribed as either “Wild” or “Scenic” with the primary emphasis on aesthetics, and not recreation. Nowhere does it say that boating must be permitted on all reaches of any of the W&S Rivers. In fact, it makes no specific provisions concerning boating (or floating, or kayaking).

“BACKCASTING”

Dec 1 (Thurs) Public Meeting - Upper Chattooga River Boating Ban: About 8 or 9 Rabunites traveled to Wahalla, SC, to participate in the 3-hour meeting and work sessions. The stakeholders were divided into groups based on their primary user interest (see Q&A on page 6). They were asked to review and validate the Forest Service team’s work on Recreation Opportunities and their Desired Conditions, and build on that information by recommending prioritized, specific, and measurable indicators such as Fishing disturbances (number of times angler per day had to stop fishing because of an encounter). Also at the meeting, the Forest Service presented information on the data collection methods that agency officials are considering.

For more details on the work sessions and handouts, go to: http://www.fs.fed.us/r8/fms/forest/projects/chattmeetings.shtml

We Need All the Help We Can Get

Rabun TU & the Georgia TU Council Position Statement

Visitor Use Capacity Analysis, Upper Chattooga River