Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Ms. Mason. My name is Pat Mason. I am a member of Idaho Women In Timber and I live in Coeur d’Alene. My husband is a unit manager of a local sawmill and therefore, our livelihood is derived from the timber industry. I am in favor of 'No More Wilderness in Idaho.' As a member of Idaho Women in Timber, however, we have decided to support the Idaho Forest Industry Council's position. My husband and I are native Idahoans, and depend on the timber industry in one way or another all of our lives. We believe in a well-managed forest for multiple use. We love to get back to nature to hunt, fish, pick berries, and to camp as much as anyone else. We know we can do all these things and still have timber available to harvest if the forest if properly managed. A tree is a crop. As such, whenever its full growth is reached it will die, that tree will be very vulnerable to disease, bug infestation and rot. Whenever enough trees in a forest die, become diseased, infested and rotted, they will fall and cause a terrible fire hazard. I know this is supposed to be nature's way, but man was given a brain, I believe, to come up with better ways of coping with some of these stuations. It is my belief that these trees should be harvested at proper intervals and the forest replanted either by human hands or by leaving seed trees to help Mother Nature. Just because an area is put into multiple use does not necessarily mean the trees will be harvested. Many areas are not suitable for harvest but the more wilderness there is in Idaho, the less accessible the timber is to get to and the less allowable cut, therefore the less jobs available in the timber industry. With unemployment the way it is today, we need all the jobs we can get. We don t need additional mill closures due to the lack of allowable timber sales. I believe the most important thing is to settle this roadless issue once and for all. It has been sufficiently studied by the Forest Service in the past and we now need to get a firm bill written with hard release language in it.