Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mrs. Longworthy. Thank you, Senator McClure, Senator Symms. I am not an outdoors woman and at age 67 am not apt to become one. I will not address myself, therefore, to the specific forest areas. 486 We in the West with our wealth of natural resources, have become like the proverbial lad whose money is burning a hole in his pocket. We are impatient to use our resources up, to use them all up and to use them all up now. The mythical rugged individualists of yore have been replaced by organized groups of individuals with political clout, an addiction to welfare euphemistically called subsidies and seemingly an insatia ble acquisitiveness. Even those whose livelihood is best served by roadless areas managed as wilderness have succumbed to the prof ligacy of the age. Agriculture is recognized as the leading industry of Idaho. Agri culture is dependent on a stable water supply. Watersheds in wil derness areas are protected from erosion caused by road building and logging and therefore they provide a stable water supply, qual ity water supply, not a deluge in the spring followed by little or no water during the growing season. According to a 1975 study by the U.S. Water Resources Council, the national average per capita per day rate of water withdrawal, excluding hydropower coming from all sources, not just public sup plies, was about 1,600 gallons. It was exceeded in Idaho by 21,000 gallons. Idaho is thinly populated and has a large acreage under irriga tion. Nevertheless, this statistic underlines the fact that there's gold in those proposed wilderness areas and that gold is water. Wilderness is a bank savings account. It provides protection for a diversity of plant and animal life. Loss of diversity of a species is of grave concern to scientists. In many plants we've found remedies for some of man's ailments. Wilderness is multiple use. Why be in a hurry to limit out op tions in the future? I support maximum Wilderness.