Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

IDAHO Senator Lannen. Thank you, Senator. I'll try to stay in the 2minute time limit. I am Vern Lannen, State senator from the Fourth Districts. I appreciate the opportunity to be here this morning. Besides being a State senator, I am also a logger. Most of the time this time of the day I am out falling timber. The areas that I am most familiar with are the St. Joe and the Coeur d’Alene River Basins. The only area that I would recommend for wilderness is the Mallard Larkins area. I believe the rest of the land should be opened up for multiple use, and I think that we need to take a hard look at how those lands will be used. I think there needs to be significant changes made in the way the Forest Service manages the land. Their road building programs are, at best, ridiculous. There needs be significant changes in those so that these lands can be managed properly. I believe that mining, logging, and wildlife can go together, but unless those policies of the Forest Service are changed wildlife is going to get the short end of the stick, Senator. I wish you well in your work, but I would hope that some of these policies could be changed, and that we can use some of that road money for wildlife, for restoration because if some of those things aren't changed, 10 years down the line we are going to have a lot of problems with sustained yield, and with wildlife. I wish you luck in your job.