Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Wuerthner. My name is George Wuerthner. Mr. Hos ford — George Wuerthner, W-u-e-r-t-h-n-e-r. And Mr. Hosford is in South America right now and can't be here. I was signed up for later in the day. My comments are going to be free wheeling, so to speak. I have worked for the Forest Service both in the Nez Perce and Challis National Forests here in Idaho and presently I am employed as a range technician with the BLM here in Boise. I am intimately familiar with many of these areas that are pro posed for wilderness in Idaho. And as a general feeling, I support all of them. But I would like to speak specifically about a few of the areas on the Challis forest because that's what we are talking about today. Many of these areas I don't understand where is a real conflict about wilderness designation. The areas, for the most part, lack minerals because, if they had minerals, they would be full of roads right now. The areas have been extensively explored in the past. And valua ble minerals for the most part have been located. Timber is probably the major problem in many areas. But on Challis, that's a small consequence. Much of the forest there is 169 very, very slow growing. For instance, in the Borah Range, it is called, or sometimes the Lost River Range, you have a timberline about 9,500 feet at the lower end because it's so dry, trees can't grow until you get to that elevation. At the same time you have an upper timberline of about 11,000 feet; the fact that it's too cold. So you have a very limited timber resource that exists here. The timber is much more valuable for its effect on watersheds, and so forth.