Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Lytle. Thank you, Senator McClure. I've lived in Idaho County all my life. And I have worked there all my life my working years. I have been in and out of all the wildernesses we have in the area. I hunt and fish and enjoy it tremendously. At the age of 18 when I graduated out of high school, I first began work for the Bureau of Public Roads as an engineering aid. For 4 years I've worked mostly in the roadless areas of Newsome Creek, Red River and cut off of Red River on Highway 14 and Highway 12, which is Lewis and Clark Highway. But after 4 years, this type of work came to an end. Not wanting to leave, I went into partnership with my own brothers at the home ranch. At the time of my employment with the Bureau of Public Roads, my first job was to run levels up roadless Newsome Creek. This I had mixed feelings about as my father's range allotment was in that area. Also, my favorite hunting and fishing area was there. If we put a road in there, it could possibly destroy the whole works. But the roads went in, the loggers started cutting clear cuts. And some of those I felt were too big; and they were. Roads all over and campers and so on up and down the meadows. Well, so then cattle and loggers, that mixed pretty good. But then campers didn't like the cattle in their campgrounds. And you can't blame them at all. So, here comes the Forest Service telling us we had to keep our cattle out of the meadows. So, we took them up into the higher country. My father had been running these cattle in there since 1938. And so, we did the best we could to move them up there. And then they come and said, well, you got to keep them out of the clearcuts. This created some problems. Well, we did the best we 571 could. And it looked like there was possibly going to be an end of hunting and grazing in Newsome. As time went along, the hunting got better because of the feed. And you say, well, how could that be? Well, first of all, all the clearcuts, roads, and things, which some of the roads I felt were overconstructed, began to grow grass and brush. There began to be an increase of feed for both cattle and elk. Thus making the range better for cattle and wildlife alike. The roads gave better access for us and the cows into some of the roadless areas. With the trails at best it was very, very poor. There was brush higher than your head on a horse and also very thick timber. To make a long story short, Newsome Creek has become a favorite camping, fishing, and hunting area for old and young alike. I think it's about time we start looking at our retired people as a local asset. They have homes, pay taxes, and spend money locally. They do not take jobs from the local people. But we do very little to provide things for them to do. Newsome Creek has become one of the very favorites of the old people. I do not think all the roads should be—should or can be used for recreation. The U.S. Forest Service has done a very good job in Newsome Creek on this with gates and et cetera. As far as grazing, I was wrong at first in thinking all would be lost. It has increased. We used to use 70 percent of the usage of the area. Thank you.