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Mark Freeman Commentary Those who make waste must now use haste in its disposal Beginning next spring, there will be one added difference between boaters and bears along the Wild Rogue River. Boaters will be banned from doing their business in the woods in the Rogue�s famous Wild and Scenic Section under new rules outlawing defecation in the woods. Beginning in May 2001, rafters, kayakers and anglers taking trips through this river section will be required to pack out all human waste not left in vault toilets or at private lodges from Grave Creek near Galice to Foster Bar at Agness. The intent is to put an end to the No. 1 complaint among the river section�s 15,000 summer visitors � too many people going No. 2 around campsites and sandbars along the 43 miles of protected river-way. "It�s a health hazard and, aesthetically, it�s disgusting,�� says Ken Vines, a river manager for the Siskiyou National Forest. The 2001 boating season on the Wild Rogue will bring a requirement that private boating parties carry portable toilets that meet minimum health standards. The requirements will leave the old stalwart � a plastic bucket with a snap-on lid � short of the standards, so most boaters likely will opt to buy a small rafters� toilet for $50-$250. The pack-out-your-poop rule will be made possible by the construction of a special dumping and cleaning station for portable toilets at Foster Bar. The SCAT Machine will clean, sanitize and disinfect boaters� portable toilets for about $1. The requirement is intended to rid this river stretch, which is one of America�s original wild and scenic rivers, of the ugly and unsanitary "toilet-paper gardens�� that can pass on disease and foul the river experience. "All across the West, we�re trying to get human waste out of these wild places," Vines says, "and the (Wild Rogue) river corridor is the perfect place to do this." The Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, which share management of the river�s wild and scenic section, will likely begin enforcing the rule with the permit-only boating season that starts next May 15, says Robyn Siebold, one of the BLM�s river managers. Once begun, the rule will be a year-round and permanent separation between man and bear. "Bears," Siebold says, "will still be able to go in the woods." Not going in the woods has long been the law on rafting�s "A List" of whitewater, like the Colorado River and Middle Fork of Idaho�s Salmon River. Rafters of the Illinois River also have been boating under a no-feces decree for years. In all cases, someone in the boating party carries one of the tiny portable toilets., most of which are the size of a milk crate and weigh just a few pounds. The Forest Service has required commercial outfitters to carry portable toilets on the Wild Rogue, but they have not been required for the general rafting populous because the Forest Service and BLM had no facilities for waste-dumping at Foster Bar. The two agencies teamed with the Oregon State Marine Board to install a SCAT Machine, which is like a coin-operated dishwasher for portable toilets. The contraption, made by a French Glen couple, will be installed at the Foster Bar boat ramp this summer for rafters to test-drive before the haul-your-waste rule goes into effect next May. River managers had hoped to get the SCAT Machine installed in time to require portable toilets this summer, Siebold says. The agencies , however, couldn�t get their you-know-what together in time to make that possible,. Siebold says the BLM and Forest Service likely will check for portable toilets before rafting parties leave the Grave Creek boat landing. Employees likely also will do camp checks for portable toilets much like they now do for fire pans, she says. But the finer points on future feces policing are not yet known, Siebold says.Under current law, boaters can walk off gravel bars, dig a hole in mineral soils to defecate, then pack out their toilet paper. While doing the former is common, doing the latter is not. Toilet paper is regularly strewn about � or worse, found in fresh holes in and around where you wish to pitch your tent. It�s more than an eyesore, Vines says. It�s a health hazard. ``Human waste is hot, biologically," Vines says. "It�s nasty stuff. A lot nastier than animal (feces). And human waste is pretty gross." Humans produce, on average, a half-pound of feces a day. Multiply that by the about 45,000 user-days during the summer and fall rafting seasons alone, and that�s a lot of fecal land-mines out there. And what constitutes a legal portable toilet will draw some interest as well. Historically, rafters have carried five-gallon plastic buckets or metal ammunition container commonly called a "rocket box." To be legal, the bucket or box must be air- and water-tight, have a way to release built-up methane gas and be cleaned at either a SCAT Machine or an RV dump site, Vines says. Buckets and boxes can be retrofitted for as little as $25, but most boaters will probably opt for some of the portable toilets. Vines, who owns three portable toilets, says the contraptions do more than separate the men from the bruins. They are cleaner and easier to use than the fly-filled vault toilets and open up endless camping opportunities, he says. They are clearly worth the money and space in a raft. `"It liberates you," Vines says. "Suddenly, with your toilet, you can camp anywhere. You can have a fine camp, a nice camp, one without these fecal foot traps everywhere." (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. 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