the ecological damage that could be done to the area. The land is extremely steep. The slopes are rugged. In this situation, the only type of logging operation feasible would be clear cutting. Once that is commenced the result can be vast ecological damage. Realizing that the term is somewhat overused, I would suggest the term "erosion" and "slash burning" to be more appropriate. Such damage is not repairable for years to come. With the projection by the U.S. Forest Service that Oregon really only has 30 to 40 years of logging left before timber reserves are depleted and logging of wilderness areas is "necessary", then I would suggest that this is a sad commentary on the destruction and poor use of a gift of God. Ultimately, legislators must come to grips with the issues and take to task the reality that a comprehensive land use program must occur in order to build up land and forested areas so when the date 30 to 40 years hence is reached we won't have to log wilderness areas. After hiking in the Three Sisters Wilderness Area, the Skyline Trail, boating the Rogue River, seeing Glacier National Park, Yellowstone National Park and some of the Canadian Rockies which are better conserved than the U.S.'s. and even the beauty of Lake Louise, I must conclude that the only course of action is to annex Minam into Eagle Cap. Respectfully submitted. MALCOLM L. KOCH. JESS FAHA AGENCY, Lakeview, Oreg., May 18, 1972. Hon. WALTER S. BARING, Chairman, Subcommittee on Public Lands, DEAR MR. BARING: I am heartily in favor of the Minam River Wilderness H.R. 6446 and I would like to have this letter made a part of the hearing record. The character of the terrain of the Minam and the Little Minam is such that roads which would be constructed for logging would cause massive erosion and resultant land slides. This erosion will deteriorate the high quality of the waters of both streams and may result in impairing or destroying the salmon and steelhead spawning grounds. In the 1971 publication "Minam River, A proposal for management" the Forest Service Stated "The timber could not be removed without an expensive network of roads that could be detrimental to the soil, water and wildlife resources. These conditions would also prevail for the Little Minam. Accordingly I am in favor of the proposed bill. Sincerely, FRANK J. FAHA. Hon. WALTER BARING, MONMOUTH, OREG., May 22, 1972. Chairman, Subcommittee on Public Lands, House Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. BARING AND MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE: This letter is to impress upon you my feelings regarding the proposed addition of some 115,000 acres to the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area (H.R. 6446). I hereby request also, that this letter be included in the official hearing record on this bill. Let me first direct my remarks to the economic questions surrounding this dispute. I am aware of certain logging companies' claims to the area in question. I am aware that they say they need the timber for home building here in Oregon. and that unless they are allowed to log the area, Oregon and the LaGrande area will lose vast amounts of revenue. Frankly, I question the validity and objectivity of any report done by a private concern which makes recommendations concerning that private company's area of business. The possibility of conflict of interest in such a case is too high to be discounted. I cite a study done-I believe by the U.S. Forest Service and which I am sure has already been cited-which shows that it would cost more to build logging roads into the area than all the timber in the area is worth. If the logging companies continue to claim the timber as necessary for home building, let me ask them to explain their export figures and still justify this claim. Other factors which I don't believe the logging companies have adequately allowed for are: the actual amount of salable timber in the area; the rugged, steep slopes; the unstable soil which would likely create runaway erosion if the slopes were stripped of their cover (are we to believe that the loggers will for sake clear-cutting here?); and the large number of small streams in close proximity to the stands of timber. These factors would point to the economic unfeasability of logging the area. If I personally have not convinced you on this point, let me ask that you at least postpone your decision on these points until the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group, Inc. (OSPIRG) publishes its study of the area in the fall of 1972. A study is now planned for the summer of that year which would be an economic/environmental impact statement for the proposal to log the area. Beyond this, though, much stands to be lost if we (you) fail to protect this area. The small streams I mentioned are the breeding grounds for salmon, steelhead, and other fishes as well as an integral part of the life support system for large numbers of elk and deer. If the area is not protected and allowed to be logged, the deer and elk will either die or go elsewhere in the winter, and the fish will breed there no more. These considerations lead me to another point. Just as economics cannot be our only concern in making such a decision as this, so the balance of nature is not the only other set of factors involved. Though it cannot be measured on any known scale, we must consider the pure aesthetic beauty of the area. I have lived all my 21 years in Oregon, and am proud of it. I have hiked across the Three Sisters Wilderness in central Oregon, have hiked along the coast, have camped along the Clackamas River and elsewhere on Mt. Hood. Early this month I was fortunate enough to be able to take a short tour part way up the Minam River to view the area in question. I can say with a free conscience that as far as aesthetic beauty goes the Minam is second to none. The Minam River drainage is unique in its beauty as are the other areas I mentioned, and just as they deserve to be saved, so does the Minam. One cannot hope to describe in mere words the impressiveness, the awe-inspiring majesty of an area such as this. One has to see it, to feel it, to experience for himself the serenity and perfection of the wilderness. Truly, one cannot help but feel and respect the hand of One greater than all in the creation of the Minam. To fail to preserve this, to allow it to be desecrated by bulldozers and chainsaws would be the ultimate sacrilege and blasphemy. I think it is accepted knowledge that communion with nature is one of the best and perhaps a necessary way for men to uplift their souls. The Minam River drainage is among the best in the world for such a purpose. Before closing I would like to comment on the arguments of Rep. Aspinall and Mr. McGuire that the Minam cannot be considered for wilderness classification since there is already a large number of marks of man's presence-stockman's cabin, the old sawmill, the two dude ranches. These arguments hardly deserve an answer. They are last gasping attempts at refusing to see the true balance of the arguments. First, the two structures excluding the ranches do not interfere with the wildness of the area at all. The ranches can be handled in a number of ways: the second phone line can be buried; they could be condemned and allowed to rot; they could be managed by private or public agencies under the rules for wilderness areas. In fact, taken all together, these various structures could enhance the wilderness as examples-both living and dead-of a life style which is vastly important in our regional and national culture and history. They certainly are not valid or important deterrents, and indeed could be made into valuable assets. Therefore Mr. Baring and members of the committee, I, as a citizen of Oregon, the United States, and the planet Earth, call on you as citizens of the United States and planet Earth, to pass H.R. 6446-including the 82,000 acres in the Minam area and the other 33,000 acres as a buffer zone-and to recommend and fight for its passage in the House and Senate. Now is the time for men of foresight to take decisive action in leading this nation and this world along a path of respectful coexistence and cooperation with nature rather than gross exploitation of it. Yours in the public interest, GARY A. CHURCH. Representative WALTER S. BARING, Chairman, Subcommittee on Public Lands. PALO ALTO, CALIF., May 15, 1972. DEAR MR. BARING: I want to urge the passage of H.R. 6446, to preserve as wilderness the Minam and Little Minam Rivers. For years now, since first I read Justice Douglas's account of his trip into the area, I have read about the concern to save these river drainages from despoliation, and I have made a pack trip into the area to see with my own eyes. Please be reminded of the Forest Service's own statement in 1971, "Minam River, a Proposal for Management": "Although the stand of commercial timber has considerable value at the present time, it could not be removed without an expensive network of roads that could be detrimental to the soil, water and wild life resources." The canyons are steep and fragile. Roads and logging would inevitably result in rapid erosion, in slides, and in permanent destruction of the superlative clear water of these splendid streams, almost unrivalled in Oregon and certainly unrivalled in Eastern Oregon. Besides the irreparable aesthetic damage, consider the harm to salmon and steelhead, and the ruining of this area as a place of recreation for sportsmen, hikers, and lovers of the outdoors. Sincerely yours, NEWELL F. FORD, Professor of English, Stanford University. MASONS SUPPLY CO., Portland, Oreg., May 16, 1972. Hon. WALTER S. BARING, Chairman, Public Lands Subcommittee, Interior and Insular Affairs Committee, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. I understand that this proposed legislation would remove an estimated 700 million board feet of lumber from our resources. I suggest strongly that we here in Oregon, who receive by comparison very little federal money, need this income. Secondly, the sustained yield available would support a small operation. Undoubtedly, should this available harvest be eliminated, it would work a severe hardship on all sawmills operating in the area especially the smaller ones. Finally the population in Wallowa County has declined steadily: 1960 to 1970, -12%; projected 1970 to 1975, -7.2%; 1970 to 1980, -19.2%; 1970 to 1985, -24%. Source for this information is the U.S. Bureau of Census, and Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone. I strongly urge you to consider the above and not eliminate this valuable natural resource, and the income and jobs produced by it. DEAR SIR: Allow me to express my wholehearted support of H.R. 6446 introduced by Congressman Ullman, a bill which would add the beautiful Minam River drainage to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. Any roads built in the Minam area would destroy the last and most beautiful crystal clear river in Oregon. The canyons of the Minam and Little Minam have reached erosional equilibrium. This means that any disruption such as a road would upset the delicate balance which holds the soil on the steep canyon walls and keeps the waters transparent. Aside from marring the natural beauty of the area and destroying the ideological pleasure of being in a completely natural and virgin wilderness, logging or other roads would have serious ecological implications. Increased erosion would cause siltation of the spawning gravels and destruction of the salmon and steelhead runs spawned in the Little Minam and Minam. Oregon has only about 1.2% of its land classified as wilderness. Addition of the 2 of 1% included in Rep. Ullman's bill would still leave Oregon with the least percentage of wilderness lands of any Western state. How can the commercial value that logging would give outweigh the loss of so beautiful an area? Our children's children deserve to see a small part of what was once the unspoiled American wilderness. Only a bill such as H.R. 6446 can protect this area. Sincerely, ROBERT D. FREEMAN. LA GRANDE, OREG., May 12, 1972. Representative WALTER BARING, House Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. BARING: We would like to go on record as supporting Ullman's bill #6446 adding the Minam River Canyon and other areas to the Eagle Cap Wilderness in the Wallowa Whitman National Forest. There are many reasons we believe these areas should become wilderness, such as game refuge, steelhead and salmon streams that provide for both commercial and sports fishing, meaning many thousands of dollars to our state, rare and endangered species sheltered there, important watershed, and many many more. But, as the Forest Service so aptly put it at the recent Forest Service hearings, wilderness is supposed to be justified for its own sake, not for any other reasons. Not for recreation, economics, or anything else. And just because you place an area under wilderness protection doesn't mean you can't go back and change its status sometime in the future if some dire emergency would demand it. But if you once cut roads into an area, or log, or any other human disruption, you can't go back as easily and declare a wilderness. And if we can't hold out some spots in their natural state, these areas will soon have human development and it will be too late. Let's not close doors behind us and have man's ripping and tearing of the earth in every nook and cranny of our planet. Let's keep as much as we can in wilderness and stop to think a bit about what we are doing to our environment. One last thought, that could be the most important of all, . . . and that is the overall ecological system of our planet. It is the general consensus of opinion that if our natural environment keeps disappearing, such as more and more trees being cut down (and not replaced fast enough), earth covered with concrete, and more and more of our animals becoming extinct, our earth could well lose its natural ecological balance, and that, of course, in turn, could spell man's eventual doom. And with more areas being developed and less and less natural environment left, this could easily happen unless we are very careful to study what we do to our earth. We must hold a certain amount of earth in its natural state, if for nothing else, to insure man's own survival. Mr. and Mrs. GEORGE GAROUTTE. PORTLAND, OREG., May 15, 1972. Representative WALTER BARING, Washington, D.C. DEAR MR. BARING: I am expressing my opinion and the opinion of several of my friends on the proposed addition of the entire Minam River into a wilderness status. The transparent waters of the Minam River and the Little Minam River flow through steep canyons in the Wallowa Mountains. There are no other remaining streams with the water quality equaling these rivers. Erosion in substantial amounts would be certain to result from logging or any road construction. Erosion will deteriorate the high quality of the waters of the Little Minam and the Big Minam below their confluence. Erosion will increase the suspended particulate matter in the water, fill the spawning gravels and impair or destroy the salmon and steelhead spawning grounds. The Forest Service proposes approximately 8 miles of the upper river for addition to the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area. It proposes to exclude from wilderness the remaining 16 miles which lie within the forest. In the 1971 publication, "Minam River, A Proposal for Management," the Forst Service said concerning this lower area of the Minam: "Although the stand of commercial timber has considerable value at the present time, it could not be removed without an expensive network of roads that could be detrimental to the soil, water and wildlife resources." Consequently, it proposed roadless status for this area. What the Forest Service said of the lower Minam is equally true of the Little Minam: Roads would be detrimental to the soil, water and wildlife resources. However, the Forest Service and timber industry desire to construct roads in the Little Minam canyon and log the timber stands. The result would be the destruction of the beautiful Little Minam canyon, erosion on a massive scale, land slides, the end of the transparent waters of the Little Minam and the Minam, siltation of the spawning gravels and destruction of the salmon and steelhead runs spawned in the Little Minam and Minam. The hearings at La Grande on Senator Hatfield's bill showed conclusively that there never had been a shortage of logs from the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest. In conclusion, I am of the firm belief that the establishment of this wilderness river will be of immeasurable value to future generations. Nothing mankind could create would ever replace its loss to those who appreciate the world as it once was. Representative WALTER S. BARING, REYNOLD APPLETON. RENO, NEV., May 6, 1972. Chairman, Public Lands Subcommittee, House Office Building, DEAR MR. BARING: Please include this letter in the official hearing Record of the May 18 hearing on the Additions to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. I strongly support Mr. Ullman's bill which would add the Minam River Canyon to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. The Minam River is one of Oregon's last wilderness rivers and a major gateway to the high country. It is important that this canyon and its forests, meadows, and wildlife are included in the Eagle Cap Wilderness. The other proposed additions would also help round out the wilderness. Thank you. Sincerely, REED SECORD. ASSOCIATED STUDENT BODY OF EASTERN OREGON COLLEGE, Representative AL ULLMAN, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, D.C. DEAR REPRESENTATIVE ULLMAN: The Senate of Eastern Oregon College would like you to know of their support in adding nine units to the Eagle Cap Wilderness. The following resolution was brought up during Monday night's Senate meeting (April 24, 1972) and passed unanimously. RESOLUTION No. 71-72-8 We, the members of the ASEOC Senate, as a result of action taken on this date, request that our testimony relative to areas to be recommended for study for inclusion in the present Wallowa-Whitman National Forest Wilderness system be entered in the record. That the ASEOC Senate recommends the eight units adjacent to the existing Eagle Cap Wilderness, namely, Minam River No. 9, Bear Creek No. 9, LostineRuby Peak No. 9, Boulder Park No. 9, Chief Joseph-Hurricane Creek No. 9, Upper Imnaha-Sheep Creek No. 9, Cornucopia No. 9, and Catherine Creek No. 9 be added to the present Eagle Cap Wilderness Area. We feel that these additions would make a much better topographical boundary for the wilderness area as well as adding almost 59,000 acres to the Northwest's second most visited wilderness area. Be it further resolved: That the ASEOC Senate also recommends the Lower Minam No. 10 be included for wilderness study. These are included in Representative Ullman's bill and in Senator Hatfield's bill for inclusion in the Eagle Cap Wilderness Area. We appreciate the opportunity to enter testimony on this matter. Sincerely yours, COLLEEN WEDDING, ASEOC Secretary. |