Idaho Wilderness Hearings

Statement:

Mr. Warner. Yes. My name is Tim Warner. And my oral comment today I wish to just speak for myself because I have a wilderness area that I've very much concerned about. I'm an Idaho resident. I've been a resident of Idaho all my life. My grandparents used to run a hunting camp and run cattle on open range and Fish Creek roadless area that's part of this hearing process. During the Lolo Land Use Plan, Fish Creek was set aside for a wildlife study area. And the Forest Service and Fish and Game spent considerable money in there. Put an elk trap in the upper meadows where there is a mineral lick where the elk eat the minerals out of the ground to get those nutrients that they need. And they also set cameras on Elk Butte to take pictures of the game there. And I feel it's a very important area for the fisheries. It's a good steelhead fishery as well as west slope cutthroat trout. The other part—there's a Fish Creek side and then there's what they called a Hungery Creek. Now, when I was a boy, we called it Obia Creek. And the Forest Service changed the name of Obia Creek because they figured out that that's where Lewis and Clark just about started at going through there too early in the summer when there's still snow on that high country and on the Old Indian 638 Lolo Trail. That the longest stretch of the Lolo Trail is still primitive. It's an 18-mile stretch. And it borders Hungery Creek. There's another section—roadless area—that hasn't been identified that I think should be included with the Fish Creek area. And that's the Hungery