Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Meckel. I wish to thank you, Senator McClure, for the opportunity to express my opinions regarding wilderness in Idaho forest management. My name is Fred Meckel, and my wife and I live on a small farm and tree farm in the Mica area about 10 miles south of Coeur d’Alene. My wife is a retired teacher, and I am a retired forester and land surveyor. We have lived here for 33 years. Prior to moving to Idaho, I was employed by the Forest Service for many years in various positions, and in forest administration, and I feel that I have an appreciation of the pressures exerted by various well-meaning interested groups for management of our national forests. I believe that watershed protection is the first priority of the national forest management. That and wilderness go hand in hand in my opinion. I endorse for wilderness the Salmo Priest, the Long Canyon, Selkirk Crest, and the Mallard Larkins, Scotchmans Peak, and the grandmother mountain areas of the Panhandle National Forest, along with boundaries recommended by the Idaho Conservation League. We have hiked, backpacked, and camped in most of these areas, and feel that they are truly outstanding, worthy of preservation for future generations. I support a viable forest products industry in the Idaho panhandle, but I do not believe that these areas contain enough commerical forest values to preclude them or supercede their wilderness values. In my mind, it's a matter of the greatest goods and the greatest number in the long run. Intensive forest management on better growing growth sites will yield much greater timber production in the years ahead. I hope that legislation under the Idaho Forest Management Act will not readily preclude consideration of wilderness designation for roadless areas in the future. Than you.