Does Wild and Scenic Designation create a 1/4 mile protected corridor along the river?

It is probably more accurate to say that designation “establishes a flexible boundary on both sides of the river.” However, even this is subject to misinterpretation.

What the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (WSRA) actually says in Section 3(b) is:

“The agency charged with the administration of each…wild and scenic river…shall…establish detailed boundaries…which…shall include an average of not more than 320 acres of land per mile measured from the ordinary high water mark on both sides of the river…”

(The complete act may be found at: http://www.rivers.gov/publications/act/current-act.pdf)

Important points to keep in mind:

1. That works out to ¼ mile on each side of the river, but does not set ¼ mile as the boundary.
2. The flexible nature of the boundary is intended to enable the Study Committee to capture most or all of the Outstandingly Remarkable Values (ORVs) within the boundary by varying its width as need be.  See our ORV blog http://vtorvs.blogspot.com/  or our website (http://www.vtwsr.org/) to find out more about ORVs.
3. On rivers where there is existing federal ownership—i.e. a national forest—it clarifies which lands are subject to the WSRA and which are not.  For rivers where Congress has authorized federal land acquisition to implement the designation, the boundary established under Section 3(b) identifies which lands can be acquired, i.e. those within the boundary—see Section 6(a).  The upper Missisquoi and Trout Wild and Scenic rivers would be partnership rivers in private, not federal, ownership.
4. For most—if not all—partnership rivers, Congress has expressly PROHIBITED the administering agency from acquiring federally owned land.

Even more importantly is how the boundary gets used once established in the management plan by the Study Committee—which is limited to Section 7 determinations and thus only applies to the construction of federally assisted water resources projects. Even then, the application of the boundary is simply to determine which standard the administering agency must use in evaluating the potential effect of the project on the rivers resources.

Jim McCartney - National Park Service