ACTION ALERT – SAY NO TO JET BOATS IN THE UPPER ROGUE

From Native Fish Society

Over the previous years, Native Fish Society and other southern Oregon preservation groups have actually been working to safeguard the wild native fish of the upper Rogue River from the hazardous effects of big jet boats. And now we ask anybody and everybody who appreciates the upper Rogue River to weigh in, when again.

Thanks to the assistance of regional Rogue River promote and conservationist Bob Hunter, Native Fish Society has actually created simple talking points for you to pull from to let your voice be heard. At the least, we ask supporters to send the Action Alert listed below, and/or compose an individual note to the Oregon State Marine Board by emailing Jennifer.cooper@boat.oregon.gov asking to put a 15-horsepower limitation in location on the upper Rogue River above Gold Hill.

TAKE ACTION HERE

Upcoming In-person Public Satisfying

The Oregon Marine Board is having a public hearing on October 2 at 8:30 a.m. at the Rogue Neighborhood College Medford School Space HEC 129A/B to think about rule-making to manage jet boat usage in the Upper Rogue River (in between Gold Hill to Lost Creek Dam). Public statement will be drawn from 1:30 to 4:00 pm. Statement will be restricted to 2 to 3 minutes. Welcomed groups will be affirming in the early morning. Please think about participating in and supplying spoken and written statement. To offer oral statement practically, register with Jennifer Cooper through e-mail at jennifer.cooper@boat.oregon.gov no behind 5 pm on September 27th, 2024.

Composed Statement

Composed statement is likewise accepted till October 16th and can be sent out to: Oregon State Marine Board 435 Industrial St. NE., Ste 400 Salem, OR 97301 or e-mailed to: jennifer.cooper@boat.oregon.gov

Please let the Marine Board understand that no jet boats need to be enabled to run in the Upper Rogue River above Gold Hill which you support a 15-horsepower restriction on all boat operating because area.

Please let the Marine Board understand any individual experiences you have actually had with jet boats in this area of the river and how jet boat operation has actually negatively impacted your security, usage, and pleasure of this area of the river, and your usage of the general public and personal lands along this area of the river, consisting of TouVelle State Entertainment Location and Denman Wildlife Management location. Individual remarks and letters are the most efficient.

Crucial Talking Points:

Jet Boat Operations Negatively Impact Water Quality, Fish and Wildlife.

1. No policies on jet boat usage remain in location to safeguard generating Wild Native Fish or important spawning environment — aka spawning gravel, which are susceptible to the turbulence produced by jet boats and their wakes. Research studies of jet boat influence on rivers in Alaska, New Zealand, the Snake River, and in other places highlight the damage that jet boats can trigger to salmon environment. The threat of damage increases with the frequency of journeys and in the upper reaches of rivers where the channel is smaller sized. Rogue Jet Boat Adventures, an industrial business that runs out of TouVelle State Park declares to have actually served 14,000 clients in 2015 with its 3 boats (a 25-passenger, an 18-passenger, and a 10-passenger boat). These big jet boats holler up and down this delicate, narrow area of the upper Rogue River several times all summer season long, and now, mini-jet boats, which are simply as destructive, are beginning to appear. The operation of these boats interferes with the river community in manner ins which are hazardous and not natural.
2. Spring Chinook Salmon in the Rogue generate in this area of river and they are having a hard time to endure. These fish have actually been petitioned for listing and might be on the Endangered Types Note any day now.
3. Fish usage energy when interrupted by jet boats. Summer Season Steelhead and Spring Chinook invest various months in the upper Rogue River saving energy to generate in the fall and early winter season. Industrial jet boat trips disrupt these fish throughout the summertime season.
4. Wakes and hydraulic turbulence from jet boats remove sediment, plants, and water life from the banks and riverbed triggering boosts in river turbidity and masses of plants to drift downstream covering important macroinvertebrates (food source for juvenile and adult native fish) and winter season steelhead redds.
5. Jet boat wakes can disrupt spotted sandpipers and killdeer that nest on gravel bars and kingfishers and rough-winged swallows that nest in streambanks.
6. The Upper Rogue River riparian locations are essential nesting and feeding locations for a wide array of bird types, consisting of eagles, osprey, and fantastic blue herons. The sound and the wakes from the jet boats disrupt birds and interrupt feeding activity.
7. There is a reward for jet boats to modify the river channel to keep navigation paths open, specifically in low-flow scenarios. In a minimum of one circumstances, a jet boat was observed utilizing its jets to unlawfully search out a channel in a salmon generating location to permit boat passage through a shallow location. The location has actually not restored itself, and it is no longer utilized by salmon for spawning.
8. The guidelines of Denman Wildlife Location forbid making use of motorized boat to safeguard wildlife, yet jet boats are enabled to accelerate and down the area of the Rogue River that bisects the Denman Wildlife Location, troubling wildlife and haven users.
9. The in-water work window for this area of the Rogue River is June 15 to August 31. This is to safeguard salmon and steelhead. Jet boats can trigger more disruption than a work task in the river and need to not be enabled to run beyond this timeline.

Jet boat usage in the Upper Rogue River is not safe for individuals on the jet boat or for other river users due to the fact that:

1. The river in this location is too little and frequently too shallow to securely accommodate jet boats and other river users.
2. There are numerous blind areas on the Upper Rogue where jet boats require to take a trip at high speeds to browse. The trip boats run without spotters and regularly get in these blind areas where a severe crash is simply waiting to happen.
3. In numerous locations there are minimal paths for a jet boat, maneuverability can be restricted and there are numerous unskilled boaters on the river, and in locations where individuals are wading and swimming.
4. In a lot of cases, the jet boats require to run at high speeds simply to browse shallow rapids.
5. The wakes produced by the jet boats are likewise a security threat to individuals drifting the river, individuals wading or swimming in the river, and anglers and guides either fishing from a boat or wade fishing. The wakes can overload a little inflatable and can overturn individuals pitching in the river. The jet boat trips are part adventure trip and the boats take a trip at high speeds, do 360’s, and produce big wakes.

Jet boat usage in the Upper Rogue River is incompatible with conventional usages and has actually increased user disputes.

Historically, the Upper Rogue River has actually been a location to in harmony and securely live, recreate, and take pleasure in nature and the outdoors. This location had actually primarily been utilized for non-motorized boating from drift boats, rafts, inflatables, kayaks, and paddle boards; directed, bank, wade and boat fishing; treking, birdwatching, picnicking, dog-walking, swimming and simply a location to in harmony take pleasure in the outdoors.

1. Jet boat operations in the Upper Rogue River are not suitable with these usages. The general public’s usage and pleasure of the river and these public lands are negatively impacted by jet boat operations and threatened by the future expansion of jet boats in the Upper Rogue River.
2. Jet boats press other users out of the navigation paths and the wakes go after individuals out of the river completely.
3. The sound from jet boat operations is prevalent and interferes with the solitude on the river decreasing the quality of individuals’s experience.
4. Fishing ends up being interrupted by jet boats zipping up and down the river, specifically business trip boats making several journeys, and the hazardous wakes they produce. A remarkable quantity of water plants is knocked loose from the boat’s jets and wakes, that nasty fishing lines and lures, making it practically difficult to fish when jet boats are running.
5. Jet boat operations are likewise hurting and negatively impacting business of numerous guides who run or utilized to run on the area of the river now controlled by jet boat trips. If jet boat usage, specifically trip boat usage were enabled to increase throughout the Upper Rogue River, this would significantly cut the capability to guide or fish.

Thank you for making the effort to make your voice heard! If you have any concerns concerning this procedure or wishes to go over jet boats on the upper Rogue more, please email us at info@nativefishsociety.org.