Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. McDonald. I'm Ronald McDonald, Priest Lake, Idaho, of the logging association. My name is Ron McDonald and I live and work in the Priest Lake area for the last 24 years. I am a logger and it has been my livelihood all my life. I own and operate a logging company and work 95 percent in the Federal and State land of Priest Lake area. These areas that I know and am concerned about should not have been considered roadless but multiple use with intensive management. The areas are: 01121 Little Grass Mountain; 01122 Black Tail Mountain; 01123 Upper Priest Lake; 01981 Salmo Priest; involving 39,038 acres, and 533 million board feet of inventory with a potential harvest annually of 6.1 million board feet of volume that could be harvested on a sustained yield basis. All this information is from the Idaho supplement to draft environmental statement of Roadless Area Review and Evaluation. Sixty-one percent of the timber along the lower slopes and river bottom is mature saw timber. Some of the highest timber volumes per acre exist along the upper Priest River in the proposed Wild River and proposed wilderness areas. Based on the Priest River Wild and Scenic Rivers Draft Environmental Statement, page 3-24 and 3-25. Volumes per acre often total over 100,000 board foot. Growth rates exceed 200 board foot per acre per year. And in my view it has potential under management, to do better.