Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Ms. Bailey. Senator and staff, I welcome the opportunity to speak to you today regarding an issue very important to my center of living and my way of life. I am Marie Bailey and I represent Idaho Women in Timber. We are an organization of women and men involved in Idaho's timber industry. We are loggers, office per sonnel, mill people, foresters, and concerned citizens who derive our livelihoods directly from the forest. Idaho Women in Timber is dedicated to both a quality environ ment and a healthy timber industry. We do not think it is a ques tion of either/or but a matter of striking a viable balance. The Idaho forest is a complex resource comprising of land, plants, water, air, wildlife, and equally as important, people. It needs care ful, thoughtful management to assure a stable economy. Idaho Women in Timber is an organization pledged to increase communication, promote constructive legislation, and encourage education as it relates to the timber industry in Idaho. The Federal Government, especially the Forest Service, is Idaho's largest forest landlord. Timber harvest levels on national forest lands are shrinking. Since 1930 almost one-fourth of the national forest land in Idaho, capable of growing crops of trees, has been placed in a limited-use classification, such as wilderness and primi tive areas. The national forests are vital to the country's wood supply. They contain 46 percent of all the Nation's soft wood grow ing stock; that is, the wood must used in housing construction and for pulp and paper. With tens of millions of acres of national forest land frozen for years during RARE I and RARE II, the timber supply in the West is becoming critical. Uncertainty over the land base available for timber has put many mills and communities on a hand-to-mouth basis. As long as more land, capable of growing crops of trees, are put aside, hundreds of communities and thou sands of workers live in uncertainty. Capital improvements for mills are risky, and counties face severe tax problems, especially if mill closures occur. The consequences of this local and regional un certainty is felt throughout the State. Idaho's forest products indus try is basic to the State's economic well-being. The timber industy employes 20,000 people directly and many communities are totally dependent upon the timber industry payroll to support their serv ices and retail businesses. 658 In addition, 25 percent of the national forest receipts from timber sales are devoted to helping finance Idaho's schools and road system. In 1979, the most recent good business year for the timber industry, the Forest Service contribution to the countries in the State alone totaled $9 million. Roadless areas are not wilderness and are generally no different than the 10 million acres of national forest that have been man aged for multiple uses, including timber. For one reason or another the timber sales have been placed in other areas and roads have not been constructed. Since the Forest Service future timber sales plans are heavily dependent upon timber within the nonselected roadless areas, the controversy must be resolved, both to assure a sound timber industry in Idaho and to assure the other valid uses, including wilderness and timber production. What do we do when the wilderness becomes aggressive? The Mountain Pine Beetle has killed billions of cubic feet of good timber in the Targhee National Forest. On land owned by the timber industry, infested trees are being salvaged as they become infested or cut before infestation. State lands and private ranches, which are run for profit, see relatively few problems from the beetle. What problems there are stem from the wilderness areas and national parks, which allow the bug a field day. If wilderness could be taken by itself in isolation from the real world, there would be no problem. The trouble is wilderness areas do not exist in isolation; they often border on private land.