Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Fisher. I enjoy backpacking and other wilderness-related ac tivities in the Boulder/White Clouds, the Lemhis, the Beaverhead Mountains, Burns Canyon in the Garns Mountain area, and the Lionhead area on Targhee Pass. Opening these and other areas for development will jeopardize areas critical to the wildlife popula tion, degrade stream quality, and deprive people of wilderness recreation. Allowing roads to be built in these areas will increase soil erosion and stream siltation, reduce desirable habitat for large 752 animals, and ruin the quality of the wilderness for our children. Once a wilderness is destroyed, you can't put it back. I am opposed to the negative economic benefit realized by timber sale in these areas. Installing roads to log timber when it costs more to build the road than the timber is worth is economically stupid. I would rather see my tax dollars spent for education. I cannot support the philosophy of destroying pristine wilderness areas merely to subsidize the logging industry. I also oppose the hard release language for excluded areas of the wilderness proposal, whereby areas excluded from wilderness desig nation would be forever barred from further consideration. Past legislation, which allowed reconsideration following a 15-year plan ning cycle, is much more sensible. This type of language is particu larly important for areas like Palisades, which have potential for oil and gas production. I cannot support the elimination of these areas for further consideration, especially when oil and gas remov al may not be economical. Hopefully, we are not planning to use our tax dollars to subsidize oil companies, too. I specifically support wilderness recommendations for the Endan gered Idaho Wilderness Core because the wildlife habitat of these 10 areas is especially threatened by industrial interests. I also sup port wilderness recommendations for Lionhead, Italian Peaks, Borah Peak, and Diamond Peak roadless areas, from personal ob servation and enjoyment. Thank you very much.