our view

“Deep and dark green, swift and clear, icy cold and as pure as the snows from which it sprang, the river had its source in the mountain under Crater Lake. It was a river at its birth; and it glided away through the Oregon forest, with hurrying momentum, as if eager to begin the long leap down through the Siskiyous.”

— Rogue River Feud

The storyline behind the latest incarnation of a Rogue River feud has little to do with Zane Grey’s 1930 novel, but each has this much at its core: The beauty and the power of the valley’s namesake waterway is a siren call to those who would try to control what happens upon it.

We are all stewards of its care — stakeholders, if not the actual owners, of the Rogue River. It belongs to all of us, and to none of us. It belongs to those who would fish or swim its waters, and to those who best enjoy it as a backdrop as they picnic or read from its shores.

And it belongs to those who operate jet boat rides, and to those who cite environmental and injury risks related to those excursions.

Therein lies the rub.

Rogue Jet Boat Adventures — which the owners have worked diligently to get up and running — is legally operating jet boat rides along a 14-mile stretch of the upper Rogue adjacent to the TouVelle State Recreation Site. That is not in dispute.

As long as its passenger-loading ramps are below the high-water mark of the river, according to the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, the company is in compliance with regulations.

Similar operations have long enjoyed success out of Gold Beach and Grants Pass — demonstrating the popularity of such ventures.

As evidenced by the spate of letters received following a Rogue Valley Times feature on the jet boat rides, however, it’s not the legality of the operation that has drawn the ire of others.

Some readers have cited the potential dangers caused by the speed of the boats, and the powerful wakes they create, to those enjoying more passive activities — swimmers, anglers, kayakers and more.

One reader wrote that they’d seen a swimmer elsewhere have to dive under the path of an oncoming boat to avoid being struck. Another lamented the disruption of on-shore tranquility when a boat comes roaring past.

Others focused on the environmental damage done to river beds by the continual churning that the jet boats make on their way to and from Rattlesnake Rapids, located about 2 miles downriver from Dodge Bridge. The company currently is running three trips daily to the rapids, with as many as three boats per trip, according to Emily Grimes, co-owner of the business.

Our story, which chronicled a joyous trip that a group of middle-school graduates took on a sunny May afternoon, pointed out that the boat slowed when passing someone fishing, and again as it went along a stretch where homes dotted the banks.

“We try to be neighborly when we can,” the boat captain told the Times.

Yes, but … it’s the “when we can” part of that statement that could be better thought out. It should be the rule, and not an exception based on circumstance.

The Rogue River belongs to all of us, and it belongs to none of us. In that regard, it’s as much our neighbor as those who take advantage of its gifts.

Correction: This story was revised to correct the number of daily trips the boats make to Rattlesnake Rapids.