Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Hilding. Senator McClure, ladies and gentleman, my name is Ray Hilding. I was born in Coeur d’Alene and live here in retire363 ment. Graduate forester. Spent most of my life in Idaho and Montana. I'm here to represent only myself. I retired as a forest superviser of the Coeur d’Alene. Prior to that, I spent 9 years on the St. Joe National Forest. From 1938 to 1940 I was ranger of Red Ives for 3 years where the Mallard is located. As a man in charge for 12 years, I've traveled through the Mallard-Larkins area several times on inspection trips and fighting fire. The Mallard-Larkins Pioneer area of 30,500 acres was classified as a roadless area in 1965 while I was forest superviser. And I initiated it. So I've never heard—it's classified already as a roadless area. It encroaches a spectacular piece. The numerous mountain lakes, meadows located in the subalpine type. Classification received wide support. The Governor and land board of the State of Idaho gave strong support and commanded the Pioneer area concept. The Pioneer area—area can be reached easily by ordinary citizens. And this is what we're interested in when setting this up with the opportunity of enjoying this rare beauty by backpacking over a single weekend. I favor retention of this present classification of 30,500 acres of roadless area that we have now and oppose wilderness areas proposed by the Forest Service in 1979. Now, expansion of the area into a larger wilderness will involve multiple use land with its subsequent impact on the local forest community because of reduced timber cuts in the future. Motorized recreation of the public—that's all.