A blistering fight over whether paddling should be allowed along the upper stretch of the Chattooga Wild and Scenic River has landed in court.

American Whitewater, the premier national paddling advocacy group whose headquarters are in Jackson County, filed a lawsuit two weeks ago challenging the ban on paddling as baseless and unfounded.

In the meantime, a group called Friends of the Chattooga has formed to keep the paddling ban intact. The group includes fishermen, hikers, campers, environmentalists, birdwatchers and nature lovers who want to see the upper Chattooga — one of the last stretches of river where paddling is off-limits — protected from what they consider an intrusive sport.

The Chattooga River tumbles off the Cashiers plateau and plunges down the Blue Ridge Escarpment skirting the South Carolina-Georgia border. South Carolina’s Sumter National Forest issued a paddling ban on the upper 21 miles of the 56-mile Chattooga River in the mid-1970s.

American Whitewater has been fighting the ban since the mid-1990s. They finally won a concession from the National Forest Service, which had agreed to conduct a study and determine whether the 30-year-old ban was justified.

But almost a year into what appears would be a lengthy process, American Whitewater filed a lawsuit claiming the study was a guise being used to stonewall its efforts.

This week, both sides hash out their positions.