Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Ms. Wathen. Senator McClure, my name is Jan Wathen. I live in Bonners Ferry, and I've been hiking the mountains of Boundary County for quite a few years now. This summer I've been a forage backpacking leader. That's quite an experience. There are 42 kids enrolled in backpacking in Boundary County, and I have 11 in my group. There are city kids and farm kids, and they are all learning many new things by being out in the wilderness. One of the things that I want to share with them is the experience of hiking and camping in Long Canyon. It's such a unique place. There's really no other place like it in Boundary County or probably all of north Idaho. It's kind of steep to get into, and for that reason I don't know why anybody would really want to put roads into it. But there's—it's just like a rain forest in there, it's just beautiful. You should see it. And because of that, I feel that that should become wilderness. This summer I also hiked the Selkirk Crest, and that was a great experience, too. The views were beautiful, but one of the sort of sad things about it was that most of the views included roaded and logged areas. At the end of the hike we came out Parker Ridge, and one of the great things was to be able to see Long Canyon in 38 its entirety with its trees. So, I think, that you should consider that it's just really a very small portion of north Idaho—Long Canyon and Selkirk Crest—and the monetary gains just can't make up for the other things that it has to offer. Thank you.