Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Katsma. Yes. Over the past several years I have attended many meetings concerning the use of our national forests. These have delt mainly with Idaho, or nearby Montana and Wyoming. During these meetings I have heard many thoughtful, well-pre pared, even eloquent statements concerning wilderness areas in these States. So many concerned citizens have spent a lot of time preparing a defense for our diminishing wild and scenic areas. It continues to amaze me how hard the general public has to pursue the cause of protecting our public lands. Once again we are presented with the opportunity to express our views. As I have already stated, the many reasons for assuring these wilderness areas have been presented so well, so many times, I have little to offer. However, it is obvious that the public must once again fight diligently for the preservation of our wilderness areas. Who must we defend our wilderness against? Apparently we must defend these areas against the forest industry that is making a concerted effort to maintain their high-subsidy living from the taxpayers. Statements during this meeting, as well as previous pub lications, will again show that we are subsidizing the timber com panies to harvest marginal timber resources. At the same time, we are causing severe damage to wildlife and fishery habitats and rap idly depleting our remaining wilderness areas. We shouldn't have to do this again, but here we are, urging you to again consider the many good reasons for preserving these areas, even though some are only piles of rock, while others may be basins with alpine lakes and groves of trees. If we were to incor porate the remaining roadless areas of the national forest into the wilderness system, we would probably still have less than 20 per cent of our forest land protected. And surely we all know that this 20 percent would be mostly nonproductive or marginal in terms of forest products, since that is all that remains. However, this small remaining portion of our forest can still be very productive in terms of wildlife and fishery habitats. I have come to this meeting today to urge you to again consider including the remaining RARE II roadless areas of Idaho into the wilderness system. No compromise should be made with the forest industries who are trying to get these areas excluded from the wil derness system. Also, no hard-release language should be written concerning these areas. What we need now from our Senator is a strong declaration for our remaining wilderness, and then to see our Senators and Governor carry forward a program to see that this declaration is carried out. Thank you.