Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Dr. Hubert. Thank you for squeezing me in. I will be brief. I would just like to read my prepared statement. I feel that wilderness is Idaho's drawing card. If population growth continues in this area, more and more Idaho residents will be looking for pristine mountain areas, undisturbed trout streams, and big game animals that require graze land unpressured by human progress. My wife and I are Idaho residents by choice. We investigated many different areas of the country before choosing Idaho as home. Idaho offers the quality of life that is rapidly disappearing in this world. Recreational opportunities offered by the wilderness area are a treasure to Idahoans. Revenues generated by tourism and travel rank second only to agriculture in the State. To me this can be attributed directly to the roadless areas which provide quality fishing, hunting, camping, sightseeing. Perhaps wilderness's greatest value is solitude. Even a novice Idaho fisherman, such as myself, can see that the streams in the wilderness areas provide a much better quality fish ery than the sediment filled watersheds in proximity to the logging roads. The practicalities of this issue support maximum wilderness des ignation. Logging cannot be profitable in some of these areas with out Federal subsidies. I would like to go on record as supporting national wilderness designation for Boise and Payette National Forest areas. I also support the Endangered Core and soft release. Thank you for the time.