Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Rabe. My name is Fred Rabe. And I'm from Moscow, Idaho. Initially, I would like to endorse the wilderness proposals advocated by the Idaho Conservation League. For the past 10 years I and other biologists throughout the State together with agency people have been working on the idea of natural areas in Idaho. Natural areas are small, unaltered sites, such as, small mountain lakes, meadows, bogs, and small streams which give us certain advantages in terms of using them as baseline study areas. They also provide educational and recreational opportunities. In fact, a number of my graduate students in the past 15 years have used these areas for research sites. They also provide sites of endangered plants and animals, which we especially like to obtain as unique sites. What I would especially like to advocate, Senator McClure, is the protection of Sneakfoot Meadows, which my group and I have looked at over the years. It's an area that's about 3 miles from the summit of Elk Summit. It's a large meadow that encloses a stream—a meandering stream with a moose herd of about 30 to 40 animals. It also contains an endangered cutthroat trout species. One of the most interesting things also is the endangered species of plant that exists in Sneakfoot Meadows. This area is unique. I say unique because of all the areas that we're studied over the past 10 years in northern Idaho, there's not really one like it. There are other meadows granted. But these meadows are roaded or they're extremely small meadows in the State. The Forest Service has gone on record. The USDA Forest Service environmental statement land plan—Elk Summit Planning Unit stated that the Sneakfoot-Marion Meadows Management Unit should be managed primarily for summer moose range. Specifically the report says that the unit will be managed primarily for watershed protection. However, Senator McClure, their plans have changed in terms of logging operations, especially in the headwaters of this area. And so I would especially call your attention to the fact that this area—this whole general area should be merged into wilderness protection. If it's not, I'm afraid that the upper regions of this meadow will be affected, the stream will be sedimented and during the logging operations, the calving that takes place with the moose might be affected in the future.