Scoping is a time to identify key issues and resource conditions to be analyzed and managed. The Forest Service specifically asks for feedback on the desired conditions, user capacity, and proposed management actions included in the Proposed Action. We suggest you raise the following topics in your comments. For greatest effectiveness, personalize your comments and keep them specific to the proposed action:

1. Prioritize Fish and Wildlife – Minimizing recreational or other impacts to sensitive native fish and wildlife species should be a top priority in this plan. Monitoring and management actions directed at conserving additional species, like moose or grizzly bears, would be beneficial.
2. Provide More Information about User Capacity Numbers – While we support identifying user capacity thresholds for the different resources and reaches of the rivers, we would like the Forest Service to provide more information about how they reached these numbers, current use levels, and what actions would be considered, including actual limits, should recreational use adversely impact the rivers' outstandingly remarkable values.
3. Clarify How the Forest Service Might Manage Access, Collect Data – Several of the proposed actions appear to require the Forest Service to manage access, such as limiting the number of boats past the Goat Lick or dogs in this section. We’d like to know more about how the Forest Service plans to manage access, as well as its capacity to collect the monitoring data listed in this plan, given current capacity constraints.
4. The Plan Needs to Manage for the Whole Corridor, not just the River – The proposed action focuses almost entirely on the river itself, and managing river-based recreation. However, by law, the plan is required to manage the whole Wild and Scenic River Corridor which extends ¼ mile of either side of the river. More attention to terrestrial resource conditions and shore-based recreation (i.e. hiking, horsepacking, motorized use where allowed) is needed.
5. Prioritize Equitable Recreational Access – Commercial outfitters can provide an important service that facilitates public access and enjoyment. We are concerned the proposed user numbers are too weighted toward commercial use, potentially limiting the non-outfitted public’s ability to use and enjoy their river. We strongly encourage the Forest Service to designate a greater portion of special use days to non-commercial outfitters who provide affordable, educational, or niche recreational services, or serve underrepresented demographics, like Indigenous communities or people with disabilities.