Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. C. W. Pomeroy. Good afternoon Senator McClure and the panel. I'm C. W. Pomeroy. These hearings mean very much to me. Every one of us is taking time off from our jobs to come and testify. It is costly and difficult to take a day from work, but it is nothing compared to the decision which you are about to undertake. That is why I'm here. Tourism is our second biggest industry for the State and growing every year toward the largest, which is agriculture. The value of the tourist dollar in Idaho touches everybody in the State. When you decide upon the 6.5 million acres of roadless land, rethink the long-term economic value of having tourists return to the land year after year, spending their money on gas, food, houses, hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, climbing. This is a renewable re source. We don't have to build it. Please leave what little prime land we have left untouched so our State will be the best and the biggest wilderness State in the continental United States. I urge you not to succumb to the short term pressure from the mining and timber industry. Once you allow roads in the roadless areas, they are there forever. Soon the fish and game are gone and garbage is strewn about and your pristine country is half what it was. Let's work together to protect our State for years to come. Thanks.