Managing Recreation Uses in the Upper Chattooga River Corridor
In an effort to keep you better informed, we are creating a public website that is a resource for information associated with the management of the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River.
What’s Happening?
Monitoring in the Chattooga Wild & Scenic River.
On January 31, 2012 the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service (Forest Service) Amended the Land and Resource Management Plans for the Sumter (South Carolina), Chattahoochee (Georgia), and Nantahala (North Carolina) National Forests. The amendment included monitoring questions for visitor use impacts in the segment of the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River (WSR) upstream of the Highway 28 bridge (Upper River)
If you are interested in reading about the results of monitoring efforts, that information is contained in the Monitoring Reports for the each of the three national forests. The Sumter Monitoring reports are posted on-line at Francis Marion and Sumter Monitoring Reports. The 2012 forest amendments included four monitoring questions on visitor use. The first monitoring report on visitor use is available, click here.
Revisions to § 261.77 Prohibitions in Region 8, Southern Region
The U.S. Forest Service is proposing to amend the regulatory prohibitions that are applicable to the Chattooga WSR (36 CFR 261.77), which flows through the Nantahala NF in NC, the Chattahoochee NF in GA, and the Sumter NF in SC. 36 CFR 261.77 was originally issued on January 27, 1978, prohibiting floating activities on the Chattooga WSR unless authorized by a permit or a special use permit. The proposed change to § 261.77 is to accurately align the regulations with the decisions on floating the Chattooga WSR that were made with the forest plan amendment in 2012, which permits floating on the upper reaches of the Chattooga WSR that are also located on the Nantahala National Forest in North Carolina.