Success! Commercial Jet Boat Agreement in TouVelle State Recreation Site Denied!
Written by Emily Bowes on February 14th, 2023
Thanks to over two thousand responses from the public regarding the possibility of a long-term business agreement to allow commercial jet boats to operate at TouVelle Recreation Site, Oregon Parks and Recreation Department has decided to abandon the project. On February 13th, the Office of the Director of Oregon Park and Recreation Department released a statement that the department staff will not be pursuing any further development of the commercial concession agreement for commercial jet boats at TouVelle State Recreation Site at this time. OPRD District Manager Dani Padilla stated, “The park has to be ready, and we have work to do updating TouVelle before we consider adding new services.”
High wake activity leading to erosion and dredging operations has led Rogue Riverkeeper to advocate for stronger restrictions on commercial jet boat activities in several different sections of the the Rogue River. The upper Rogue River corridor is particularly vulnerable to commercial jet boat activities due to the narrower channel and prime salmon habitat. When the greater Rogue basin community heard that OPRD was considering entering into a five-year agreement with a commercial jet boat company at a popular public river access site there were many concerns from the public.
Read more about the background on this in our previous blog post.
Community members have had concerns for several years about the increasing frequency and impact of commercial jet boats in the upper Rogue and more recently, concerned members of the public began to organize and join with advocacy organizations like Native Fish Society, 1,000 Friends of Oregon, and the Center for Biological Diversity to speak out against the use of a public park for the benefit of one commercial operator. Since the OPRD commercial concession agreement development process does not contain a public input element, Rogue Riverkeeper pressed OPRD to include an opportunity for the users of the recreation site to provide feedback in this decision. Over 1,600 people participated in an OPRD survey and almost 1,000 people sent letters to OPRD asking the agency to abandon the project and consider the social and environmental impacts of commercial jet boat activities. Even though there was some support for commercial jet boat activities at TouVelle State Recreation Site, specifically for the local company Rogue Jetboat Adventures, OPRD decided to abandon the project.
Even with the OPRD decision to not allow official business concessions at the recreation site, Rogue Jetboat Adventures is still allowed to use the boat ramp to load and unload their passengers but they must follow the same rules of any other park user. They can no longer advertise, construct buildings, alter the landscape, or sequester areas of the park for customer parking. OPRD does not have any jurisdiction on river use activity beyond speed limits within the park boundary as all other river use rules fall under the jurisdiction of the Oregon State Marine Board. Rogue Riverkeeper will continue to campaign for stronger restrictions on high wake activities and dredging operations within the Rogue River that contribute to degradation of water quality, fish habitat, and equitable recreation opportunities.
We’ve published a full press release on our website. Check it out here.
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