Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Sealander. Thank you very much for letting me testify here I live southwest of town here on a farm, which I grew up on and have operated for a good part of those years. It's back by the Hells Half Acre lava flow, which is essentially somewhat of a wil derness. And since very early in my life, I explored this lava flow and grown to appreceiate the values of wild lands. I realy feel like wilderness is misunderstood by a lot of people as a scientific and ecological phenomenon. And when I was at Brigham Young University, I had a professor there, Dr. Earl Christensen, probably one of the foremost ecology — plant ecology profes sors in the Western States. And he took us through a lot of the areas in Utah, and also exposed us to the writings of early explor ers in the area, white explorers, and their journals of exactly what sort of flora and fauna existed in the early time as contrary to pop ular myths, showed that this land was not an empty and desolate and a dry place that it was portrayed that the settlers come to, but it was a very lush, very abundant, beautiful ecosystem here, that in Salt Lake Valley at that time they used to lose their cattle be cause the grass was so tall they would get lost in it, they couldn't find them out there. The fact is, that if you compare a balance of nature climax eco system to any man-influenced ecosystem, agriculture or preclimax or postclimax, that in every case you'll find that in the climax bal today. 709 ance of nature ecosystem, you will have a greater percentage of the Sun's energy captured through photosynthesis, you will have a greater number of species present, you will have a greater number of symbiotic relationships or organisms working together for mutual advantage. You will have greater stability, greater com plexity, greater diversity, and less entropy or degradation of that energy. And I feel like on this basis that wilderness is highly qualified to be given first priority.