Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Clopton. Yes, sir. First of all, I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to testify on your upcoming — do I need a mike, Mr. Chairman? Tne Chairman. Yes. Mr. Clopton. My name is David Clopton. I'd like to thank you, Senator, for this opportunity to testify at your hearing on the up coming wilderness bill for Idaho. First, before I start my testimony, I would like to assure you I did get lunch, and we were talking in line while waiting at the hamburger place across the street about the hearings, and the man at the hamburger stand said to save the Clearwater. As I There's no hamburger stands on the Clearwater. Mr. Clopton. That's true. As I started to write my testimony, I tried to find an angle, kind of twist, to make it memorable. And I guess the thing I came up with was just the hard economic facts of the wilderness issue in Idaho. I assume that the glasses that you wear, Senator, are to correct the farsightedness condition which I think we can — hope is some thing that will apply to the bill also. Farsightedness is supposed to. And I think if we look at Idaho's future and Idaho's economic future, we can see that the timber and the mining values in Idaho, if they were graphed wherein applied, and the reason is because Idaho isn't a tremendous timber growing area and the mineral de velopment in Idaho — the areas are so remote, especially in the wil derness areas we're talking about, the access is a real problem and the strategic importance of those areas is questionable. I feel in recreation we're where Colorado was 10 years ago in that we now have the opportunity to start promoting Idaho's recre ation and values and that that is where Idaho's economic future lies. Tourism is going to play an increasing role — and to skip to the end here, I skipped 15 through 17, I'd like to support the 10 core endangered areas that have been defined and ask that you include in your wilderness bill at least one-half of the remaining 6.5 mil lion acres of roadless area, and also to say that I would like your bill to include soft release language rather than a hard release language.