BANGOR (AP) – The Allagash Wilderness Waterway has received high marks in a survey of visitors, with 97 percent rating their experience along Maine’s sole “wild and scenic” river as “good” or “very good.”

“Finding 97 percent of people (who) agree on anything is amazing,” said spokesman Jim Crocker of the state Department of Conservation, which released the survey Monday.

The survey, the department’s first in at least a decade, was designed to help guide management policies. State officials were pleasantly surprised at the results, which Crocker described as “a validation of what we’ve been doing.”

The state contracted with the University of Maine to survey park visitors during the spring, summer and fall of 2003.

Answers from the 454 questionnaires returned by visitors indicate that different groups of users have different goals in mind, said the survey designer, John Daigle of the university’s Parks, Recreation and Tourism program.

While 24 percent of users ranked hunting, fishing and gathering as their top priorities, 36 percent placed them at the bottom of the list.

The survey found that multiweek trips down the river are becoming less common as people struggle to take time away from work. Most 2003 visitors reported trips of less than one week, with the most popular trip length being three or four nights.

The use of motorboats on the river is a significant factor, making up 35 percent of those surveyed. Nonmotorized canoes, however, remain the most popular means of transportation, at 65 percent.

The waterway has been a focus of complaints in recent years from users with different perspectives.

Some have maintained that the Allagash was losing its “wilderness character” and have sought to reduce the number of boater access points and to set aside areas where motorized vehicles, including boats and snowmobiles, would be banned.

Others complained that local people were being driven from their traditional Allagash recreation in a quest for a wilderness that they believe does not exist.