LETTERS AND TELEGRAMS-Continued Munger, Thornton T., Portland, Oreg.: Letter, dated March 31, 1959, to Murie, Olaus J., Moose, Wyo.: Letter, dated March 25, 1959, to Senator Packard, Fred M., executive secretary, National Parks Association: Letter, dated March 17, 1959, to Senator Murray, containing a paper Payne, Leo A., Spokane, Wash.: Letter, dated March 10, 1959, to Senator Pearson, Alvin B., and Lillian I., Daniel, Wyo.: Letter, dated May 9, 486 476 Peers, John, secretary, Gila Cattle Growers' Association: Letter, dated 476 Rennie, Clayton W., Port Angeles, Wash.: Letter, dated March 20, 1959, to 309 Sheldon, T. R., and Lillian, Everett, Wash.: Letter, dated April 3, 1959, Slocum, Dale, field editor, Arizona Wildlife Sportsman: Letter, dated April 2, 1959, to Senator Murray, containing an editorial from the Smith, Hans W. and Caroline, Maple Valley, Wash.: Letter, dated March "Antiwilderness Fighters Begin Battle," article from the Daily Sentinel- 418 415 "Land Forever Wild," editorial in the Washington Post, February 22, "Last Eight Percent," supplemental statement by Don Clauser_ Objections of the Western Forestry & Conservation Association.. "Perception Lost," poem by Elliott Barker, Santa Fe, N. Mex. Public lands policy statement of the Arizona Association of Soil Conserva- 419 444 249 22 487 438 351, 352 402 "South Pole Message Backs Wilderness Bill," article from the Seattle Post 173 250 "Unneeded Forest Legislation," editorial from the Seattle Times- 42 NATIONAL WILDERNESS PRESERVATION ACT-1959 MONDAY, MARCH 30, 1959 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE IN INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, Seattle, Wash. The hearing convened at 9:30 a.m., Monday, March 30, 1959, in the fourth floor courtroom, U.S. Courthouse, Seattle, Wash., Senator Henry M. Jackson presiding. Present: Senator Warren G. Magnuson, of Washington, Senator Frank E. Moss, of Utah. Also present: Mr. Benton J. Stong, professional staff member. Senator JACKSON. The committee will come to order. This is the fifth regional hearing on wilderness legislation since the Senate Interior and Insular Affairs Committee agreed, unanimously, last summer that the people of the areas most affected should be given a convenient opportunity to be heard. Previous regional hearings have been held in Bend, Oreg., San Francisco, Calif., Salt Lake City, Utah, and Albuquerque, N. Mex. From Seattle the committee will go to Phoenix, Ariz., for the sixth and, in all likelihood, final regional hearing. There most likely will be an additional hearing in Washington, D.C., after the Department reports have been received from the Departments of Interior and Agriculture. This is expected to be some time after May 1. The bill we are considering today is S. 1123, introduced February 19, 1959, by Senator Humphrey, of Minnesota, and 17 other Senators. This bill is the successor to S. 1176, which was introduced in 1957, and S. 4028, a revision introduced in 1958. S. 1123 is a slightly revised version of S. 4028. Hearings were held in Washington, D.C., on S. 1176 and on S. 4028 in 1958. I will now order that S. 1123 be placed in the record. (S. 1123 is as follows:) [S. 1123, 86th Cong., 1st sess.] A BILL To establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the permanent good of the whole people, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a), in order to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness, there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System. As hereinafter provided, this System shall be composed of federally owned or controlled areas in the United States and its Territories and possessions, retaining their primeval environment and influence and being managed for purposes consistent with their continued preservation as wilderness, which areas shall serve the public purposes of recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical use and enjoyment by the people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness. 1 (b) The Congress recognizes that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, is destined to occupy and modify all areas within the United States, its Territories, and possessions except those that are designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition. The preservation of such designated areas of wilderness is recognized as a desirable policy of the Government of the United States of America for the health, welfare, knowledge, and happiness of its citizens of present and future generations, particularly for those uses of such areas that facilitate recreation and the preservation or restoration of health. (c) It is accordingly declared to be the policy of Congress (1) to secure the dedication of an adequate system of areas of wilderness to serve the recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical needs of the people, and (2) to provide for the protection of these areas and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness. Pursuant to this policy the Congress gives sanction to the continued preservation as wilderness of those areas federally owned or controlled that are within national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, or other public lands, and that have so far retained under their Federal administration the principal attributes of their primeval character. It is pursuant to this policy and sanction that the National Wilderness Preservation System is established. The units of this System designated for inclusion by this Act, and those that may later be designated in accordance with its provisions, shall be so protected and administered as to preserve their wilderness character. (d) In establishing thus a National Wilderness Preservation System to include units within the national forests it is further declared to be the policy of Congress to administer the national forests with the general objectives of multiple use and sustained yield, and in order to carry out this policy the Secretary of Agriculture is accordingly directed to administer the national forests on a multiple-use basis so that all the resources thereof, including the recreational and wildlife-habitat resources, will be used and developed to produce a sustained yield of products and services, including the establishment and maintenance of wilderness areas, for the benefit of all the people of this and future generations. Such areas of wilderness like all other national forest land shall be so managed as to protect and preserve the watersheds, the soil, the beneficial forest and timber growth, and all beneficial vegetative cover. The purposes of this Act are further declared to be within and supplemental to but not in interference with the purposes for which national forests are established as set forth in the Act of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat. 34, 35; U.S.C. 475, 551). (e) A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. For the purposes of this Act the term "wilderness" shall include the areas provided for in section 2 of this Act and such other areas as shall be designated for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System in accordance with the provisions of this Act. NATIONAL WILDERNESS PRESERVATION SYSTEM SEC. 2. The National Wilderness Preservation System (hereafter referred to in this Act as the Wilderness System) shall comprise (subject to existing private rights, if any) the federally owned or controlled areas of land and water provided for in this section and the related airspace reservations. NATIONAL FOREST AREAS (a) The Wilderness System shall include as wilderness areas the areas within the national forests classified on June 1, 1958, by the Department of Agriculture or the Forest Service as wilderness, wild, primitive, or roadless. Provided, That the Wilderness System shall not include any primitive area which the Secretary of Agriculture shall determine to be not predominantly of wilderness value, and each primitive area included in the Wilderness System shall be subject to such boundary modification as the Secretary shall determine to be needed to exclude any portions not predominantly of wilderness value or to add any adjacent national forest lands that are predominantly of wilderness value. Determinations regarding national forest areas classified as primitive shall be made within twenty years after the date of this Act, and any such area regarding which such determinations have not been made shall then, with the exception of any roads, motor trails, structures, or other installations then existing, become a part of the Wilderness System without further regard to this proviso. Additional areas for inclusion in the Wilderness System may be designated within national forests by the Secretary of Agriculture, after not less than ninety days' public notice and the holding of a public hearing, if there is a demand for such a hearing, and such designations shall take effect as provided in subsection (f) below. The publication of a proposal to add any national forest area or part thereof to the Wilderness System shall segregate the public lands involved from any or all appropriations under the public-land laws to the extent deemed necessary by the Secretary of Agriculture. NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM AREAS (b) At the times, in the manner, and with the exceptions hereinafter provided for, the Wilderness System shall include each park and monument in the National Park System on June 1, 1958, embracing a continuous area of five thousand acres or more without roads, and such additional units of the National Park System as the Secretary of the Interior shall prescribe. Not later than ten years after the date of this Act, or within two years after the unit has been prescribed for addition to the Wilderness System, whichever is later, and ninety days after giving public notice in accordance with section 4 of the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (60 Stat. 238; 5 U.S.C. 1003), the Secretary of the Interior shall designate within each unit of the National Park System to be included in the Wilderness System such area or areas as he shall determine to be required for roads, motor trails, buildings, accommodations for visitors, and administrative installations. Each such unit, with the exception of the particular area or areas determined to be required for the aforesaid purposes, shall become a part of the Wilderness System when the designation of such area or areas has been made. Should the Secretary fail to make such a designation within the time limits specified, each such unit shall then become a part of the Wilderness System, with the exception of roads, motor trails, buildings, accommodations for visitors, and administrative installations then in existence. No designation of an area for roads, motor trails, buildings, accommodations for visitors, or administrative installations shall modify or affect the application to that area of the provisions of the Act approved August 25, 1916, entitled "An Act to establish a National Park Service, and for other purposes" (39 Stat. 535, as amended; 16 U.S.C. 1 and the following). The accommodations and installations in such designated areas shall be incident to the conservation and use and enjoyment of the scenery and the natural and historical objects and flora and fauna of the park or monument in its natural condition. Further, the inclusion of any National Park System area within the Wilderness System pursuant to this Act shall in no manner lower the standards evolved for the use and preservation of such National Park System areas in accordance with the Act of August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535, as amended; 16 U.S.C., 1952 edition, sec. 1 and the following), the statutory authority under which the area was created, or any other Act of Congress which might pertain to or affect such National Park System area, including but not limited to, the Act of June 8, 1906 (34 Stat. 225; 16 U.S.C., 1952 edition, sec. 432 and the following), the provisions of title 16, United States Code, 1952 edition, section 796; and the Act of August 21, 1935 (49 Stat. 666; 16 U.S.C., 1952 edition, sec. 461 and the following). NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES AND RANGES (c) The Wilderness System shall include such wildlife refuges and game ranges, or portions thereof, as the Secretary of the Interior shall designate. Within five years after the date of this Act the Secretary shall survey the refuges and ranges under his jurisdiction on June 1, 1958, and designate for inclusion in the Wilderness System those refuges and ranges, or portions thereof, that he determines to be appropriate. Further, the Secretary shall survey any refuges or ranges added to his jurisdiction after June 1, 1958, to determine if they are, or contain areas that are, suitable for inclusion in the Wilderness System, and shall make such determination and so designate the appropriate refuge, range, or portion thereof, within two years after the refuge or range is added to his jurisdiction. |