Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Wood. Senator McClure, I am also Russ Wood. I am going to confine my statement to experience with one of several properties which are involved in the wilderness. This will pertain to the Springfield mine in the Yellow Pine area of Valley County. My first involvement with this was in 1946 as an employee of Bradley Mining Co. at Stibmite. A small but high grade ore body was mined there in the 1950's producing 6,000 units of tungstic oxide for sale and leaving 12,000 units in the mill tailings which are now part of the mine's re serves. In the 1970's geophysical work indicated that this outcrop was probably the tip of the iceberg and that drilling and testing was, indeed, a judicious project. Companies who engaged in these expensive projects would not consider going into this one because for 7 years the Forest Service would not allow us to use 4 miles of our road. And then subse quently the wilderness boundary was established to run through the middle of the attractive area. A petition to move the boundary in this area 1 mile farther east drew comments favorable to the petition and a substantial compa ny leased the property. This company's geologic, geophysical, geochemical, and diamond drilling work in 1982 demonstrated that the mineralized zone was, indeed, extensive and it became apparent that what I had thought was an optimistic request for extension had really been too con servative. I have learned very recently that the petition for the boundary change was rejected. I have also learned from the lessee that the lease will probably be terminated. The actions by the proponents of the wilderness are depriving our Nation of materials we need for our commerce and our defense. We have too much legislated wilderness now. We, all of the coun try's citizens, will be better off without any more. We cannot defen sively fight our foes with scenery nor can we feed our children.