Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Ms. Loebeck. The Issue Update states that 6.5 million acres should be designated wilderness. My reasons for wanting this are 762 as follows: man does not live on this planet alone. It is necessary one or for humans to have plants, animals, and microorganisms. ganism becomes extinct, the balance will be upset and may cause other organisms to become extinct also. For example, one cannot If have the monarch butterfly without the milkweed. The leaf cutter bee is essential for pollination of alfalfa. If you don't have water fowl refuges in the north, there will be no birds to fly south. you have no refuges in the south, you will have no birds that will be coming north, these roadless areas are filled with species that we do not wish to see become extinct. And I'm not talking about big game, necessarily; I'm talking about small things like plants and animals and even microorganisms. No. 2, if you don't protect and wisely use what you have, you won't have it for long. For example, ancient history records show that Mesopotamia with the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers was once a fertile area. Civilizations grew and flourished there, and that in cludes Babylon, Assyria, and Persia. Because they did not take care of their land, it became unproductive, and what we have at the present day is Iraq and Iran, and you know how barren that is. This is not an isolated example. There may be some excuse for the ancients not taking care of their land, but with our technology and knowledge there will be no excuse for us. Cutting trees will change the watershed, often causing floods. The level of the ground water is already changing all over the United States. Mining causes a change in the acid base balance. Some pools in mining areas have a pH of 1, and in this pH no plant or animal can exist. No. 3, there is a relatively new science called biotechnology or genetic engineering. This involves taking the deoxyribonucleic acid from one species and putting it into another to produce a new plant, animal, or microorganism. In this fashion new, bigger, more mutrious, and drug resistant — or disease resistant organisms can be produced. This promises to be one of the industries of the future, resulting in jobs and in a better way of life. Therefore, it is desira ble that no species in the forest or the grassland perish because we must have this pool of DNA. Now, all the facts aren't in yet. The future may be full of surpris es; we owe it to posterity to preserve our heritage. Small tracts of land are as valuable in this sense as are large ones, and it's prefer able that they be scattered throughout the State. In closing, if the people of the Amazon and the Himalayas are determined to destroy their heritage, I mourn for them. But I hope that we will not be that stupid. I want the wilderness where man is himself a visitor, all 6.5 million acres of it.