Dammed rivers set free. More releases for more paddling days per year. Improved access to some of the Southeast’s favorite whitewater spots. Pardon the pun, but the past 12 months have been a watershed year for paddling in the Blue Ridge. More than ever before, the Southern Appalachians can boast of more boat-able world-class whitewater than nearly anywhere else on the planet.

“We’re redefining paddling in the Southeast,” says Kevin Colburn, the Asheville-based Eastern conservation and access director for American Whitewater. Colburn and a cohort of volunteer whitewater enthusiasts can be credited with spearheading grassroots efforts to protect the Southeast’s rivers and make them more paddle-friendly.

As in most other regions across America, the most pressing concern for paddlers in the Southeast centers on dams. The flow of water on most of the Blue Ridge’s whitewater rivers ultimately depends on the largesse of power companies and the federal government, who control the release of water from upstream dams. From the Green River to the Nantahala, the region’s favorite rivers could theoretically cease to run if the powers that be decided to turn off the faucet. But, as Colburn points out, these rivers all ultimately belong to the public, which means the public has a say in what happens to their water. Perhaps American Whitewater’s most exciting achievement this past year was their effort on behalf of the paddling public to secure releases on the Upper Ocoee River in Western North Carolina. Thanks to a landmark agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), Blue Ridge paddlers will now enjoy 54 days of recreational releases on Tennessee’s Upper Ocoee every year for the next fifteen years.

“It’s going to basically increase the quality of life in western North Carolina for both its human and non-human residents,” Colburn says. “A lot of the work we’ve doing is going to be great for biodiversity, for recreation, and for economic development in the region.”

Despite this success, Blue Ridge paddlers have faced recent challenges whose outcomes remain uncertain. Currently American Whitewater is appealing a U.S. Forest Service decision to keep the headwaters of the Chattooga River closed to paddlers.

More poignant has been the battle for the Cheoah in Western North Carolina. For decades, the nine miles of the Cheoah River between Santeetlah Reservoir and Calderwood Reservoir have sat bone dry thanks to a hydroelectric dam. Since 2000, ongoing relicensing negotiations with the dam’s current operators, Tapoco, Inc., to determine the fate of the Cheoah for the next 50 years have not brought much good news for paddlers. As of now, Tapoco will provide what Colburn describes as 10 boatable releases on the Cheoah per year, mostly in the spring, starting in 2005 or 2006. Any more releases beyond that will cost paddlers a cool $10,000 to $20,000 per release, Colburn says.

“The Cheoah could be the next Gauley,” Colburn says, referring to the world-famous West Virginia river that transformed whitewater paddling into a mainstream sport in the East. But the fight hasn’t been easy. “It’s a lot harder to defend a dream or an idea than it is something that’s already out there,” he says.

Whether the Cheoah gets to live up to its potential will ultimately depend on the terms of Tapoco’s new license as dictated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). A decision is expected in February 2005.

-Marcus Wohlsen