Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Ms. McGown. I am Mary McGown. I have submitted written tes timony, so this is an excerpt that may not flow as well as I would have wished. But I'll just start out by saying that the ecological reasons for preserving large tracts of wilderness cannot be overstat ed. It is unfortunate that our limited way of computing economic values has not evolved to the extent that we can arrive at a true monetary value of wilderness. Some components are quantitatively measured — the board feet of timber and its value, the metric tons of ore and its value, and the rudiments of assessing some recre ational values. But our economists lag behind our philosophers and cannot find a way to value the intrinsic worth of an untouched landscape. What we have not been able to put behind a dollar sign we know intuitively is valuable. Wildlands, untouched by man's modifications, are not commod ities; they are dwindling, nonrenewable resources, and by their very scarcity, their values are increased. To some people in Idaho, any additional designated wilderness sounds excessive when this State already has the most wilderness in the lower 48 States. But to others of us who have lived in other parts of this country or the world, we realize that Idaho cannot have too much wilder ness, that on a national or global scale a great proportion of the potential wilderness that remains is within the borders of this State. For a planning perspective there cannot be too much wilderness. Let's not be conservative in designating wilderness now as we may preclude the best management options later. For this reason, I en courage you to incorporate the notion of, heaven forbid, soft release into the Idaho wilderness bill to permit further consideration in the next Forest Service planning cycle of roadless areas not now designated as wilderness. As I have not prepared an acreage recommendation for the spe cific proposed wilderness areas, I will encourage you to include, at the minimum, the endangered Idaho wilderness core of 10 areas mentioned earlier today. Thank you.