Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

CONSERVATION LEAGUE Mr. Sinclair. Thank you, Senator McClure, Senators. My name is Jim Sinclair, I'm the Pocatello Chapter representative of the Idaho Conservation League. I am here speaking for myself as well as the ICL. First, I'd like to say that I support the Conservation sportman's proposal that will be released this fall, and also that my group sup ports the 10 endangered core areas in Idaho for wilderness. Eastern Idaho, probably unlike the rest of Idaho, desperately needs wilder ness. I am a native of this State and maybe in some ways a typical native. I am quite well traveled and spend a lot of time in some pristine areas around the world and know from my own experience that Idaho takes second seat to none in these beautiful areas. 679 It seems like in these hearings we get so involved in the politics and the economical aspects of talking about all this in terms of our short-term survival, that we forget to ask, you know, maybe, what if we survive, you know, what's beyond, if we as a group really work out a lot of our problems? Definitely, there's three areas that are really of concern to me that I would like to point out in southeastern Idaho that are areas that would be key areas, key to recreation areas for high popula tion centers. I also happen to work in a high technology industry, and I'm not affiliated with oil and mineral and logging and timber and that kind of thing. I think I tend to be the wave of the future, especially in Idaho. I think that agriculture and timber and logging and mining are somewhat mature areas, and that there's going to be a slowdown in growth in the State in these areas, and that what is going to be moving into the State is more areas like — or more companies like AMI and Zylog and Hewlett-Packard. And with that is going to bring a slow growth of population, and these people need places to recreate. You know, specifically around the Pocatello area I really would like to point out areas such as West Mink Creek; that it's only min utes from Pocatello and it's a watershed from Pocatello and it sup plies an enormous recreational facility to the area. It's already been selectively logged in the past. It's a very beautiful area, and it's a prime example of an area that should be looked at for wilder ness designation. Thank you.