Can “unlimited use” be expected to have ecological impacts on the Chattooga?
No. Unlimited use by noncommercial paddlers is occurring on almost every floatable river in the entire USFS system – and on every river in the region. Paddling is a very low impact activity, and the small amount of use the upper Chattooga is expected to receive will have negligible impacts. There are no other similar headwater streams in the region with any limits on use by non-commercial boating because use numbers are low enough to have negligible impacts. There is no reason to expect the Chattooga will be any different.
