Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

FISHERIES CHAPTER Mr. Varley. Senator, I am John Varley, representing the Idaho Chapter of the American Fisheries Society. We are a State organization of a national parent society composed of professional fishery biologists. In the essence of time, I will keep my comments brief concerning the Clearwater National Forest. Further information will be submitted as written testimony for the entire State on behalf of the State chapter. The Clearwater National Forest has some of the best remaining fish habitat left in the State of Idaho. It supports drainages that have the pristine qualities for producing abundant populations of native cutthroat trout, steelhead, and chinook salmon. These populations are being continually stressed by further environmental degradation through sediment produced from road construction, hydropower development and fishing pressure, whether sport or commercial. Continued population strength is becoming more and more dependent upon quality habitat that can yield fish at maximum potential. We support three major drainages in the Clearwater National Forest for wilderness status, to insure the protection of fish habitat. These drainages include Kelly Creek, tributary to the north fork of the Clearwater, Fish Creek and White Sand Creek drainage, both of which drain into the Lochsa River. Kelly Creek has the reputation of being one of North America's finest streams for producing native westslope cutthroat trout. The Department of Fish and Game's management strategy of catch and 518 release only has paid enormous dividends in the form of enhanced fishing opportunity. This management technique has afforded excellent population stabiliity, but its continued success is dependent upon the present habitat which produces high quality water. Research data shows that the unroaded section—or the unroaded portions of the drainage support three times the cutthroat trout than sections with roads. Fishing pressure has steadily increased in the area since the inception of the regulation because of the enhanced opportunity to catch more and larger fish. Water quality in Kelly Creek is presently being seriously threatened by development plans to road portions of the Cayuse Creek drainage. The short term benefits created by a highly subsidized timber sale in this area would certainly be a net social and economic loss for the residents of the State and nation. The Fish Creek drainage has been termed the Sistine Chapel of the Clearwater steelhead production by researchers. This year's survey data indicate even further increases in the stream's steelhead population which is now approaching a natural carrying capacity. The continued success of wild steelhead populations in the Clearwater River are becoming more and more dependent upon drainages like Fish Creek. White Sand Creek in the Elk Summit area of the upper Lochsa is the most important producer of wild chinook salmon in the Clearwater drainage. Chinook salmon are presently struggling for their very survival in Idaho. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game's fish management plan calls for maintaining all three drainages at 100 percent of potential with no degradation in water quality to protect fish habitat and their populations.