Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

FOR IDAHO'S HIGH DESERTS Mr. Boccard. Mr. Chairman, my name is Bruce Boccard. I am chairman of the Committee for Idaho's High Deserts, a statewide organization with several hundred members in Idaho working to protect Idaho's desert land. I have several points that I would like to make. First off, by way of context, I think you have to remember that we're not talking about how much more wildnerness we are going to create but how much less wildland we will have. We are dealing with a steadily shrinking pie. And even under the conservationist's wildest dreams, we will still end up with less wildland than we have today. Second, I wanted to say that there are a number of areas of con cern to desert conservationists that you will be dealing with in your bill, including a number of national forest roadless areas which are predominantly desert environment. These include Borah Peak, Diamond Peak, Pahsimeroi, Cache Peak, Lime Creek, the Danskins, South Fork of the Boise River, and Breadwinner. These are the areas in southwestern Idaho that we would like to see you recommend as wilderness. Third, I would like you to include in your final wilderness bound aries certain BLM lands which were dropped from further wilder Particularly we ness studies by Secretary Watt last December. would like to include the Little Wood River, a crucial elk area that abuts the Pioneers on the south and serves as a wintering area for the elk which summer in the Pioneers, as well as Borah Peak. I would also like to say that we support wilderness for these areas because we feel it is the only permanent protection that these areas can get. Unfortunately, any administrative designation which was given