Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

USE CONGRESS, OUTDOORSMEN UNLIMITED Kelley. Mr. Yes. My name is Dave Kelley. I'm testifying in place of Grayson Andrist. I was born and raised in Idaho. I grew up most of my — I grew up in Cascade, 75 miles north of here. I represent the Greater Snake River Land Use Congress, which is a chapter of the Outdoorsmen Unlimited. And we believe in the multiple use concept. We also believe that preservation is not good conservation. We are concerned with the logical use of our land and we believe that we should de velop it. We should use it to its fullest potential, which is produc tive use and not become stale or unproductive. We have suggested legislation that we sent to your office which is called the Idaho Wilderness Release Act and we believe in the hard release and that all lands that are roadless should be released to multiple use. This may seem harsh and uncompromising, but history has shown that if we do compromise, we tend to lose more than we started out asking for. We watched the Central Idaho Wilderness Area that is being de veloped from the old primitive area which was between 1.4 million acres to over 2 million acres. We watched the Gospel-Hump compromised away.