Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Hershey. OK. My name is Terry Hershey. And, first of all, I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to present my views regarding the future management of Forest Service roadless areas in Idaho. I'd like to specifically address the Mallard-Larkins RARE H roadless area, which is P1300. I feel that I'm qualified to discuss this area because I am a professional wildlife biologist and have worked in this area over the past 4 years. I also have frequently taken advantage of the recreational opportunities this area offers. The Mallard-Larkins is a roadless subalpine area in north Idaho, on the high divide between the Northfork of the Clearwater River and the upper St. Joe drainages. And I support a wilderness designation of 175,000 to 200,000 acres in this area; including the boundaries stated in the original RARE II wilderness recommendation, as well as additional acres. The land is characterized by exceptional steep slopes with numerous rock outcrops, shallow and unstable soils, sensitive watersheds, and marginal timber producing sites. The economics of developing most of the Mallard-Larkins for timber harvest would be highly unfavorable. Timber producting sites and values are marginal in this area relative to the more productive and accessible land at lower elevations. Merchantable timber stands of saw log value are few and widely scattered. And old growth mountain hemlock stands dominate the higher elevations. Hemlock is not a valuable saw log material. Its primary use is for fiber or pulpwood products. Also, once harvested, hemlock sites are extemely slow and expensive to regenerate. To date, Forest Service silviculturists have been unsuccessful in all previous efforts to regenerate hemlock habitat types after timber harvest. Numerous acres of high elevation, unregenerated hemlock stands up to 20 years old on commercial forest land adjacent to this area bare mute testimony to our futile efforts to grow trees where an old growth forest of hemlock once stood. As many as five unsuccessful planting attempts have been repeated on some of the hemlock sites at a high cost to the taxpayer without any foreseeable return on their investments within the next 150 years. A serai brushfield still persists on thousands of other acres that were burned by catastrophic wildfires in this area in 1910 and 1934. Shallow, infertile soils, harsh growing conditions, and competition with brush will prolong the regeneration and growth of trees 653 on these sites. Roads to access the Mallard-Larkins will require substantial amounts of appropriated money for harvesting small, scattered tracks of relatively low value timber resources. Why use tax money to build roads when not enough timber is available in the area for sales to turn a profit and justify the cost of the roads? Roads located on the exceptionally steep and unstable land types characteristic of the area are extremely expensive to construct and inevitably detrimental to the water quality and stability of streams affected by construction activity. The increased erosion and sediment delivery to steams are subsequently damaging to the fishery resource and their habitat. That's it.