Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Ward. My name Fritz Ward and live in Boise. would prefer to designate all the remaining roadless portions of it to the national forest lands in Idaho as wilderness. I am reminded of a situation in my Boise neighborhood a few years ago. There was a tract of about 10 acres of land in small pastures that gave the area a rural feeling even though was within 3 miles of the State capitol. I liked it that way and was not supportive of the effort to convert it to city park until one of the landowners subdivided his pastureland. It then became clear to me that the choice was between subdivision and the city park and that the status quo was not an option. Similarly, most Idahoans, I'm sure, would like the situation to remain as in was 20 years ago, with many opportunities to get off and enjoy Idaho's unspoiled lands in seclusion. But those days are over. We'll either have to share this beautiful country with the growing number of recreationists or head off to a favorite area only to find the trail has been largely supplanted by a road, the stream silting in, and the beautiful trees going or gone. A couple of years ago a fellow with the Sawtooth Forest told me that almost every timber sale on the Sawtooth was a money-losing proposition for the Forest Service. Thus, it appears to me that the fiscally responsible option is to go for wilderness rather than loging. Most of the Idaho batholith is poor for growing timber. It makes about as much sense to try to grow trees in the mountains as to grow potatoes there. The big trees there now are the result of hundreds of years of natural forces at work. the Forest Service figures about 120 years for a 20-inch tree in the Boise Forest, that assumes active silvaculture in terms of planting and caring for the trees, and the natural forests have not received much funding for that. The 120-year estimate is quite optimistic under current practices. Compare the productivity here with that in the Southeastern United States where timber companies are buying–land like my grandfather’s from which he could harvest trees every 20 years off flat land that was not damaged by roads. Marvel at areas in New Zealand where 20-inch Monterey pine takes only 20 years to grow and where douglas fir has to crowded to slow growth enough that the trees harvested will yield lumber suitable for construction. Compared to those places, what we have in Idaho’s mountains is a timber mining operation. Let’s not pay tax money to have the timber mined off our wild areas. Let’s keep them wild.