Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Bucher. You're a brave man to sit through this. I'm a Boundary County resident who will be most directly affected by a wilderness or log decision. I own the land that borders the national forest where Canyon Creek exits the mountains. And I own the land to the north of the creek to where it empties into the Kootenai River. If it's declared wilderness or designated wilderness, this is going to adversely affect me. We have a cattle ranch there. And already we're having an awful lot of traffic and parking—camping. So far there haven't been any problems. But wilderness designation is going to mean more people and more problems. In spite of that, having spent most of my life there and knowing that canyon probably better than anyone else, I don't think it should be logged. If it comes down to a decision between logging or wilderness, I opt for wilderness. Now, I did some homework on numbers. And I at first thought the economic impact would be negligible. And I found that figures lie or lyers figure. I've got some good ones. I did this myself. Parts of Fisher and Canyon Creek drainages are 9.6 percent of National Forest land in Boundary County. If we're talking only about Canyon Creek and Long Canyon Creek, 4.7 percent.