This story was originally published on LincolnChronicle.org and is used with permission.
The Oregon Marine Board voted unanimously Thursday to restrict the size of boat motors in a middle section of the Siletz River but delayed the new rule until after the fall salmon and winter steelhead seasons.
The ruling – on a 2025 request by the Confederated Tribe of Siletz Indians to ban motors entirely above Jack Morgan Park – comes after months of meetings between the agency’s staff and tribal and fishing representatives to see if there was a middle ground of some sort.
There appears to be no compromise, Alan Hanson, the agency’s policy and environmental program manager, said Thursday.
So, staff suggested a limit of 15 horsepower boat motors between Jack Morgan Park and Old Mill Park, on the west edge of the city of Siletz, a distance of about 10 river miles. There would be no motors of any kind above Old Mill Park.
After more questions and discussion during its meeting in Madras, board members found a slightly different route:
- A limit of 15 horsepower motors from Jack Morgan Park to Old Mill Park, which would prohibit jet sleds and effectively mean smaller motors only on drift boats;
- No motors above Old Mill Park, which is the west terminus of a popular “town drift” around the city of Siletz; and
- Instead of implementing the rule Oct. 1, its effective date would be March 31, 2027, to allow the fall salmon season and winter steelhead season to proceed as normal.
The board also authorized the agency’s director to spend up to $500,000 to make improvements to the Old Mill Park boat launch and parking area, a process that could stretch into late 2027 or 2028. The park is owned by the city of Siletz.
The Old Mill Park’s boat ramp needs replacement and there is only parking for five vehicles with trailers, said agency facilities manager Janine Belleque. The city of Siletz provides overflow parking at city hall, but it is a 15-20 minute walk, she said.
“It needs a lot of work,” Belleque said.
Fourth request for restrictions
Many of Oregon’s coastal streams, especially those in the heavily fished northwest part of the state have some limits on boat motors or type of motors.
The marine board has prohibited all motors on the Nestucca River, for example, but allows quieter, less powerful electric motors only on upper portions of the Trask, Wilson and Kiltches rivers in the Tillamook area. Jet pump motors are banned above tidewater on the Alsea River, but otherwise motors are allowed there — but little used because of the size of the stream.
On the Siletz River, the board was responding to a 2025 request by the Confederated Tribe of Siletz Indians to ban boat motors above Jack Morgan Park, which is 26 miles from the river’s mouth and two miles above the head of tidewater.
The agency banned jet pump motors above Jack Morgan Park in 1987 but rejected requests to prohibit motors upriver in 2001, 2008 and 2013.
The latest request was the focus of three previous marine board meetings and then five rulemaking sessions that drew comments from hundreds of people on issues ranging from accessibility and tradition, to potential damage to the river, to conflicts between fishermen.
Vice chair Steve Lambert, Jackson County’s parks director, said the board’s focus should be on reducing conflicts and not wading into whether motors were affecting the river or environment. He compared it to the board’s motor restriction on some heavily-used portions of the Rogue River, which seems to have lessened conflicts.
“This is a really challenging position to be in … in making a decision that affects multiple users,” Lambert said.
Board chair Laura Jackson of Portland said it was a conflict between types of users below Old Mill Park and the use of high-powered motors above it.
Board member Dax Messett of Medford asked if allowing electric motors above Old Mill Park would satisfy both the tribe and fishing interests. But Hanson said electric motors did not “rise to the top” as a compromise solution during the five rulemaking sessions.
“Nobody seemed to be interested in a compromise of gas versus electric,” he said, adding that it is the propeller that can cause damage to the river. “The conflict is still there.”
The board’s newest member, Fiona Wylde of Hood River, told the other three that “some sort of compromise is the best solution.”
She suggested banning motors above Old Mill Park, and she and Jackson agreed with Messett’s suggestion to delay the rule until March 31, which would not impact reservations already made with fishing guides for the fall salmon and winter steelhead seasons.
The vote was 4-0.