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Grants Pass offers site for Rogue center GRANTS PASS � The city is offering a site for a 3,000-square-foot visitor center that could take some of the heat off a government plan for managing a popular whitewater stretch of the Rogue River. The city would like to see the $800,000 Smullin Visitor Center built on a seven-acre riverfront parcel near the Parkway Bridge rather than farther downstream at Rand, which is served only by a narrow two-lane road. "We certainly believe a facility ought to be located nearer to a population center, where we can provide direct services," said Bill Peterson, Grants Pass city manager. "We think that purpose ought to be served in Grants Pass, the predominant crossroads." Despite earlier objections, the Rand location for the visitor center remains in the latest version of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management proposal for managing the 27-mile Hellgate stretch of the Rogue, which became Oregon�s first federally designated wild and scenic river in 1968. The Riverhawks, a watchdog group, opposes the BLM plan to build the visitor center at Rand, near a small facility where permits are handed out to the 13,000 boaters who annually float the wild section of the river beginning at Grave Creek. "We�re going to fight that one tooth and nail," said Larry Laitner of Ashland, a member of the Riverhawks. "That is one of the highest-quality recreational sections of river that I know of. It really deserves more protection." Fewer than 20,000 people visited the Rogue when it was designated a national wild and scenic river in 1968. But by 1991 � the last count of visitors � 618,000 people visited the river, and BLM projects 941,000 visitors by 2007. BLM has been working on the management plan since 1993, and trying to resolve conflicts between commercial jet boats and private boaters. The latest plan would sharply limit trips by Hellgate Jetboat Excursions on summer weekends, when the river is jammed with recreational boaters. The proposed plan would also cap the number of private boaters allowed on the river in the Hellgate section at 500 a day, a target that could be reached as early as 2008. To limit access, BLM officials are considering user fees and a permit system for both private boaters and commercially guided trips. "We really haven�t gotten to that point yet," said Eric Schoblom, BLM�s associate manager of the Rogue River. "We�re kind of hoping that we have a little bit of a grace period before that issue comes up." Last year, Hellgate Jetboat Excursions carried 70,000 passengers down the Rogue on 19 daily trips, including eight 75-mile trips to Grave Creek, the start of the Rogue�s wild section. The new proposal would limit Hellgate�s trips to Grave Creek to four. It also calls for phasing out by 2003 the company�s largest craft, a 43-foot boat that carries 75 passengers, and ending the commercial jetboat season Sept. 15, two weeks earlier than the current limit. Hellgate Excursions owner Robert Hamlyn said the weekend restrictions made sense, but he objected to phasing out the 43-foot jetboat, because it allows more people to enjoy the river with fewer jetboat trips. He added that cutting back his season limits business at one of the busiest times of the year, and he has already given up the month of October to avoid conflicts with spawning salmon. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.