Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Blankenship. Mr. Senator McClure, Congressman Symms, I'm thankful for this opportunity to come here to testify today. I've come here to ask that you help us preserve our beautiful scenic wilderness areas. If possible I would like to see them enlarged. The beauty presently found in our wilderness is probably unsur passed by that of any other State. A total number of acres now held in our wilderness is a very small amount, in my opinion, if we considered the total size of our country. It is evident that the natu ral beauty can be adequately protected only if the area is main tained as roadless. Roads almost always lead to destruction and abuse of any forest ed area. If you travel the Boise River, you will see examples of what I refer to today. A large portion of land there is being devasted by a small prospector or mine operations. They seem to come in from out of State, in most cases, dig up the earth, and in general destroy the beauty, pollute the streams, then go away and leave it. I doubt that very little profit is realized for much of this activity. And the natural beauty is ruined forever. Also, in the North Fork of the Boise River are examples of what the logging industry does to destroy the beauty even worse. Many roads are left unmaintained an eroding the mountainsides afer the loggers have finished. Forest Service trails are destroyed, often by such activity and I know now that many of them will never be usable again by hikers and backpackers. The roads have caused considerable depletion of our game herds. Roads have caused the buffalo and elk to become extinct in the eastern United States. The roads have caused our elk and deer herds to be grossly reduced in size in Idaho. One of the reasons our state is so much better than most of our sister States, is that we have fewer roads. Some of our Eastern states have had most of their mountain scenery Eroded by the construction of too many roads. In the Blueridge Mountains, for example, millions of tourists travel Blueridge Parkway to enjoy the scenery, only to find that little can be seen of it because of the smog and: air pollution caused by their automobile exhaust. I would like to see the Trinity Mountain and the Steel Mountain area in Boise National Forest designated wilderness.