| Final Decision on Upper Chattooga Boating Delayed |
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A flood of public comments has delayed the U.S. Forest Service's final decision on whether to allow nonmotorized boating on the Upper Chattooga River.
The agency originally had planned to release the final decision on recreation use on the river in December, but an extended public comment period that brought in more than 3,000 individual responses delayed the decision. The agency now expects to reach a decision in February.
The Forest Service's verdict will finalize a proposal released by the agency on July 2 that would allow limited, nonmotorized boating on seven miles of the 57-mile river for a few days each year. The river runs from headwaters near Cashiers, NC down along the Georgia and South Carolina state lines. Intense debate about recreation on the Upper Chattooga has gone on for years, most recently ignited by American Whitewater's challenge to the Forest Service's 2004 decision to continue a boating ban on the river. That caused the agency to re-evaluate the river's management plan. The Chattooga, designated a Wild and Scenic River in 1974, is one of the few such designated rivers known to ban boating. 
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