Statement:
CATTLEMEN ASSOCIATION Hogg Mr. an. Senator McClure, my name is Carl Hoggan. I rep resent Jefferson County Cattlemen Association, which has a mem bership of 150 cattlemen and their wives. We support your proposal No. 1, which is no additional wilder ness acres. Our main concern is grazing for the cattle industry in Idaho. Grass is the life blood of the cattleman. To make more wilderness in Idaho is like strangling the cattlemen of this State. We feel it is wasteful in this great land of ours to not utilize some of our special resources, namely, grass and water. The Forest Service records show that there is only minimal use of wilderness already designated for recreation. We say, why waste additional acres for the recreation of those very few who do not particularly enrich our State through tourism? Our forest should be accessible to everyone, both rich, poor, and handicapped. We feel the wilderness area, as now designated, cannot be uti lized by the handicapped people of our State. We feel that the economy of Idaho needs the logging industry be cause it holds the equalizing key to employment and brings in 25 percent of the State's nonfarm income. Also 25 percent of the value of national forest timber sold goes back to the counties where the timber is harvested. Seventy percent of this money is used for county roads and 30 percent for the support of the schools. There is no way, Senator, that you can offset the happiness of a minimum few backpackers with improvement of our roads or with the educa tion of our most priceless possession, our children. Last year the forest income for our State was $6,674,923. This was from grazing, timber, and mining. The BLM ground revenue from the same resources was $5,346,000. This was $12 million from the multiple use of our forests. This money is earmarked for roads 769 and schools inside the State. We urge you to limit the wilderness area to what we already have. Idaho needs this revenue. The stewardship of our State land and national forests is indeed yours and our concern. Conservation and utilization in the proper proportions for the best good of the most people is what God ex pects from us to do with what He has so generously endowed Idaho. Thank you.
"Hoggan, Carl R.", Idaho Wilderness Hearings, Center for Digital Inquiry and Learning (CDIL), University of Idaho Library, https://cdil.lib.uidaho.edu/wilderness-hearings/items/aug-11-1983-hoggan-carl-r.html