In the summer, the protected river is a no-wake zone. Motorized crafts putt downstream and most, especially larger crafts, are trailered back up. In the last six years, the number of outfitters and guides swelled from six to 25. This season, the BLM received 52 outfitter and guide applications. Wade Brown, who manages recreation for the BLM, said the agency put a moratorium on new permits while a special advisory committee studies what's going on out there.
Numbers are a potential problem.
A lot of people don't want to float the Wild and Scenic Missouri and camp with 200 people. There are others who don't mind. It's hard to separate, now, the visitors who come because the river is Wild and Scenic from those who come because Lewis and Clark did nearly 200 years ago. Soon, everybody wanted to see the famous white wind-carved limestone cliffs and all the rest of it less than a day's paddle from Virgelle. Hard as it is to separate the two, it's harder to imagine one without the other.