§1273 National Wild and Scenic Rivers System

Summary

Creates the national wild and scenic rivers system and says which rivers can be added and how they are run. Rivers can join only if Congress adds them or if a State’s legislature names them and the Governor (or someone the Governor appoints) asks the Secretary of the Interior to approve them. The Secretary must find they meet the system’s rules and then approve them. When the Secretary gets a State’s application, he must tell the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and publish the application in the Federal Register. The law specifically includes the Allagash Wilderness Waterway in Maine, a segment of the Wolf River in Langlade County, Wisconsin, and the New River in North Carolina from Dog Creek downstream about 26.5 miles to the Virginia line. Rivers added under a State’s application must be managed by the State or local government without cost to the United States, except the U.S. still pays to manage any federally owned land there. Money made available under chapter 2003 of title 54 or other law is not counted as a U.S. expense. No federal land is transferred to the State or local government by this process. A river area eligible for the system is a free-flowing stream plus nearby land that has one or more special values listed in section 1271. Any river that is free-flowing now or is restored to that condition can be included. Included rivers are put into one of three groups: wild (no dams, mostly reachable only by trail, primitive shores, clean water), scenic (no dams, largely natural shores but reachable in places by road), or recreational (easy road or rail access, may have some development and past dams or diversions).