Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Ms. Watkins. I was born and raised in a city where you, Senator, spend much of your time working. It's a beautiful city with a unique personality, rich with impressive monuments and history around every corner. I'm speaking, of course, about our great capital, Washington, D.C. Any school child can read in a book about this city. You have to be there to experience the essence of that great place. Walking the great halls and reliving the history and taking part in the Government as it's working today. There's literally nothing else like that place anywhere in the world. Well, I know of a place in north Idaho that is just as unique, although the monuments aren't made of marble, and certainly the eyes of the world aren't focused on it. But Long Canyon is the last unroaded, unlogged drainage in the Selkirk and is, again, a place 254 that you must go to and experience it to feel the essence of that place. I feel very strongly that if you destroy, start building the roads, and logging that area, we are going to lose that experience which we'll have to read it from a book. And it just will never be the same. It will be lost. Just like, I'm sure, when you first went into Washington, D.C., you were probably overwhelmed by the atmosphere in that city. It does it to everyone that I know of that works there or visits there or lives there. If Washington, D.C., was destroyed or disfigured in any way, people would have to read about it in a book. And I think you can understand what loss that would be. And I feel the same loss would occur in Long Canyon. We would have to read about it in a book. And I don't think that is fair. Thank you for your time.