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On October 2, 1968, President Johnson signed the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Paddlers were and continue to be among the most passionate advocates for protecting our nation’s free-flowing rivers. Upon witnessing the loss of hundreds of miles of great rivers to water development projects and hydropower, paddlers were among the first activists who advocated for a Wild and Scenic Rivers system to protect our nation’s last free-flowing rivers.

In Kentucky there is only one river in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, Red River.

(154) (A) RED RIVER, KENTUCKY. — The 19.4-mile segment of the Red River extending from the Highway 746 Bridge to the School House Branch, to be administered by the Secretary of Agriculture in the following classes: (i) the 9.1-mile segment known as the “Upper Gorge” from the Highway 746 Bridge to Swift Camp Creek, as a wild river (this segment is identified as having the same boundary as the Kentucky Wild River), (ii) the 10.3-mile segment known as the “Lower Gorge” from Swift Camp Creek to the School House Branch, as a recreational river.