Protections provided by the 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act have expired for a portion of the Chetco River, and have yet to be renewed by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Protections expired despite support from local communities and Oregon U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and U.S. Representative Peter DeFazio and action by the U.S. Forest Service to extend the ban on new mining claims.
LINK (via: The World)
The Chetco River is one of three congressionally designated National Wild and Scenic River that flow through the Kalmiopsis Wildlands. The high percentage of Congressionally designated Wilderness and other National Forest lands in its watershed is a rarity on the West Coast, south of the Olympic Peninsula. It’s rivaled only in this only by Oregon’s Illinois River. The Chetco flows into the Pacific Ocean at Brookings, Oregon.
