Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Tondrick. My name is Keith Tondrick. I live in Boise, Idaho. I would like to thank you for allowing me the opportunity to ex press my views concerning the disposition of roadless lands in the Boise, Challis, Payette National Forest. It is my feeling that a full public participation in the wilderness process is vital in developing a quality widerness bill. When I learned that you were planning to introduce a wilderness Excited, bacause I feel wilderness is an excellent objective and very good for the State of Idaho. But I was concerned about the haste in which the bill was seeming to develop. I was worried that perhaps certain pristine lands in the Boise National Forest may be overlooked as this bill was progressing. In that light I have been working with members of the envirnmental community to get out and inventory these lands and determine which acreage we would like to see in the wilderness bill. Approximately half the field season is remaining and we have not had an opportunity to inventory all the lands in the Boise and Challis and Payette National Forest. To this end we are still working on the process and plan to present to you our figures concerning the amount of wilderness we would like to see some time in October. I have led two trips into regions of the Boise National Forest that are roadless in order to get a firsthand view of these areas. One was 10 miles east, known as Sheep Creek along the Middle Fork of the Boise River road. The people I was with on this trip were awed by the beauty of these areas. We were up on a pass about 8,000 feet in the 10-mile east area looking north toward Idaho 21. We were really quite awed by the sight. It was almost like the coffee table picture book. bill this year, I was excited and also very concerned. But in essence the people said to me, 'This is a really pretty wil derness area and we really enjoyed the opportunity to get in here and hope to have the opportunity for our children to see this area also.' I said to them, 'Well, that is correct. It is a real pretty wilder ness area. But it is not designated as wilderness.' This concerned them. They were worried what it was going to look like 20 or 30 years from now. Could their children see the pris tine state that we saw it in. This was the concern of the people that I was leading. Could I make one other point? Yes, sir. Mr. Tondrick. I was in the Sawtooths two weekends ago and found on a Friday when I was traveling up to Trail Lake near Grandjean that there were about 15 people camping there. There was quite a large number of people. This shows to me the fact that wilderness is really something that is needed in Idaho. The wilder ness areas that are here are getting great use and the fact that the Sawtooths were so crowded, perhaps we should have the wilderness area closer to Boise so that we can dissipate the crowd and in that way I think it would improve the entire area.