Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS Mrs. Fitzpatrick: Thank you. I'm Fran Fitzpatrick and I'm—as president of the Lewiston League of Women Voters, I had assumed that there would be a position either on a National or State level that would relate to wilderness. However, we do have strong positions on clean air, clean water, and land use planning in Idaho. But they do not relate specifically to the wilderness issue. So I'd like to just testify on my own behalf. And we live in Lewiston, Idaho. And we have five sons—adult sons. And they all support the concept of wilderness especially for hunting, viewing, and photographing and fishing for the preservation of wildlife. Since we are asked to be specific, I have a picture we took in 1980 near the summit of Mount Scotchman which was taken without a—this is taken with a regular lens, not a long—long-distance lens. And it shows a mountain goat which is very rarely seen, especially that close. And Mount Scotchman is northeast of Lake Pend Oreille. And it fortunately is in one of the proposed areas for in the Forest Service and the Forest Industry Councils proposals. It's impossible for this species to exist where roads are within a rifle range as they make such a tempting target whether it's legal or not. The other Saturday morning I listened to Todd Maddock being interviewed on KOZE-FM. And he stated that Potlatch Corp. can manage their forest on a sustained yield basis but the Forest Service cannot. Why not? Sustained yield in our forests that are already roaded is the real answer to our need for timber. Thank you.