Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Wright. Senator McClure, I appreciate this opportunity to address the issue of Idaho public lands. My name is Ken Wright. I've been a resident of Coeur d’Alene for 12 years and of Idaho for about 17 years. I graduated from Oregon State University in 1962 and in 1971 earned a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of Idaho. Since that time, I have been teaching chemistry and also environmental science here at North Idaho College. However, I want to emphasize that I am testifying today strictly on my own behalf. I in no way whatsoever am representing North Idaho College. The 2-minute time limit has put me in a real quandry as to what to cover. It's simply not possible to cover the gist of my testimony that I spent hours working on. That will, I trust, be well reviewed in the record. I would also like to relate a personal incident that occurred only 3 weeks ago when I was in Long Canyon with my family. But I think the time limit would preclude that. I wanted to hit the economic argument because that, I think, is a very important argument in times like these. But before I do that, as a teacher of environmental science, I would like to mention the value of wilderness as an ecological laboratory. The base line, if you will, for science can study the natural processes that maintain life on Earth. By studying undisturbed ecosystems, we may learn how to prevent and repair damage in ecosystems that we do develop. Wilderness is also a gigantic reservoir of diverse streams and animal and plant life. Many of which have never been studied for their potential use. For these reasons, it is desirable to establish wilderness areas in diverse type of ecosystems. As you know, Senator, Idaho has no wilderness north of the Lochsa River. And this should be addressed in this final wilderness bill. Because of limitations of time, I am skipping over the economic arguments because they take too long to develop in depth. But I will state that it would be foolish, indeed, to base our wilderness decisions only on the present net value of timber. But when such values turn out to be negative without even considering the economic benefits of nontimber factors, then to recommend such areas for development is financial dismanagement of the worst kind. If I thought it would be administered fairly, I believe I would support a bill that would simply forbid any depth of timber sales on Federal land.