Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

FOREST INDUSTRIES Mr. Welling. I'm Mike Welling, resource manager for Idaho Forest Industries, and we strongly support the IFIC stand for wilderness. You have heard many arguments from preservationists during the past week for making roadless areas wilderness. One of these is that the American people should not subsidize the timber industry by building roads into those roadless areas because of a very low benefit for others. I'd like to give you two examples that would counter this. One example where timber dollars have enhanced recreation values is along the main Coeur d’Alene River. The entire road above Enaville, over 20 miles, was built with timber purchaser dollars. Appropriated money has since asphalted this road, but the original investment came from timber sale dollars which opened this beautiful river to literally tens of thousands of people each year to fish and camp. It is one of the highest used recreation areas in Idaho. The millions of board feet of timber that comes down this road each year has not lessened the beauty of this area. Besides the Coeur d’Alene River the other major entrance to the Coeur d’Alene National Forest is over the Fernan Hill Road. This is the major access from the highly populated Spokane area. In 1939 when this road was built, it was paid for with appropriated money. There was not enough timber adjacent to this road to support the original investment. In fact, it was nearly 5 years later that the first timber sale was put up. Since that time there has been over 1 billion board feet of timber hauled on this subsidized road. It would be hard to calculate the amount of times that the net receipts to the Government have been increased because they subsidized the original investment. In fact, since that time, timber purchasers' money has double-laned and improved this road. 50 Recreation and timber, along with wildlife and water can exist side by side. No one is subsidized when everyone benefits from an investment to the future. Thank you.