Recently, at the annual convention of the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce in Buffalo, N.Y., Dr. Shane McCarthy, Executive Director of President Eisenhower's Council of Youth Fitness, related physical well-being of our young people to their spiritual and emotional health which is frequently tied to their need for parks and out-of-door recreation places. He spoke with concern about our modern aversion, which is shared by many of our younger people, to anything that separates us from our easy chairs, the television screens, and the other things we now consider "necessities" for comfort and easy living. Dr. McCarthy's observations pointed up the frailties of people whose chief concern seems to be that of making things easier for themselves, and his audience was caused to ponder how this kind of a goal fits in with the complex social and political problems our Nation faces today.

It is evident that we need more than ever the physical and spiritual stamina that has brought our country so far during its short history. Dr. McCarthy feels that we have lost much of this. Most of us will agree with him. Most of us must also agree that the inroads of our civilization have left too few places where people can find relief from the pressures of our modern living pace, in natural and unspoiled outdoor places. Life in the quiet countryside, or small rural community, is no longer a part of the everyday experience of our people and most of us are confined to large cities where massive factories and industrial developments dominate the landscape. Dr. McCarthy made a plea to the members of the Junior Chamber of Commerce to work to keep a few places, like parks and wildernesses and wildlife ranges, where our children can at least sample a little bit of the unspoiled out of doors. The bill, being considered by this committee today, provides an opportunity to assure the preservation of a unique area within the Arctie Circle for this important purpose.

The area to be included within the Arctic Wildlife Range contains a vast expanse of wild and undeveloped country which supports a rich variety of wildlife. Many of these animals cannot live without wilderness. The grizzly bear, wolf, Dall sheep, wolverine, caribou, and polar bear vanish in the face of civilization and the inroads it brings to their natural environments. These animals are wide ranging. Some, like the caribou, migrate great distances between summer and winter ranges. They cannot be saved except within a large wilderness area of the kind provided for by this measure.

Within this area there are countless lakes, ponds, and marshes where ducks, geese, and shorebirds nest before returning to wintering areas in the United States. Mountains, towering over 9,000 feet, are retreats of the Dall sheep. Dwarfed willow and birch "forests," blankets of flowers, and wide expanses of tundra are all a part of this spectacular wildlife range.

This remote country, and the wildlife it supports, are fragile things. Without protection, the disrupting influence of man could ruin much of what we value most highly here. The lichens that furnish food for the caribou, once destroyed by fire, may take a hundred years to come back. The grizzly cannot tolerate man's roads, but under primitive conditions of the back country he can continue to challenge the skill of the outdoorsman who seeks to stalk him with camera or gun.

Careful controls over the taking of game are essential for the proper protection of wildlife resources of this area. It is important that the authorities, as invested in the Secretary of the Interior by this measure, be clearly established. Stringent enforcement of game laws and thorough basic research to gain a full understanding of the living requirements of the wildlife found in this Arctic range are essential. Scientific information, as revealed by studies in these undisturbed environments, can be applied to great advantage elsewhere within the ranges of these game species throughout Alaska. But once these animals or their natural living places are disturbed by man, it is doubtful that they could ever be restored to their present natural state of productiveness. Arctic life, both plant and animal, hangs in precarious balance. It is essential, therefore, that we maintain these natural communities of plants and animals while permitting this area to be used by people for recreation and scientific purposes.

It is important, too, that mineral development activity, as permitted in this legislation, be so controlled as to prevent disturbance of this area and the appropriation of title to the surface of the land. Every safeguard must be carried out to preserve the primitive and unspoiled character of this wildlife range.

There is some objection to this measure by persons who feel that the establishment of the Arctic wildlife range will add additional financial burden upon Alaskans for construction of highways in the new State. We suggest the amendment of S. 1899 to provide language that would not penalize Alaska for the reser

vation of lands to be included within the Arctic wildlife range through the formulas for apportionment of Federal Highway aid construction funds. Such an amendment would establish that the lands included in Arctic wildlife range would be counted among the unappropriated and unreserved public lands within the State of Alaska for purposes of determining the Federal contributions to Alaskan highway construction programs.

In the final analysis, this committee must consider the importance of wildlife, wilderness and the out-of-doors to our people. It must also consider what these things have meant to us in the past and what they will continue to mean to us in the future for recreation, for relief from the pressures of our modern living pace, and for scientific study of nature as it can be seen in a setting that is free of man's dominating influence.

Many of us are convinced, and I am sure these convictions are shared by some of the members of the committee, that our people must continue to have the opportunity to visit areas like the Arctic wildlife range if we are to maintain the human resources we need in order to meet the many challenges which we face in the world today.

We hope that the committee will move quickly to report this bill so that the irreplaceable assets of this unique area can be designated for protection and preservation for the people of Alaska and our Nation.

Thank you for the privilege of appearing here today.

Mr. BRANDBORG. I would like to say a word about the National Wildlife Federation's efforts to provide the strongest possible administrative organization for the management of Alaska's wildlife resources. Our interest in getting the best possible State agency administrative organization for this vital work stemmed from our representation in Alaska by the Alaska Sportsmen's Council and our broad interest in wildlife and other resources of this great new State. Efforts of federation staff people, including Mr. Callison, to whom Senator Gruening referred, were directed toward this goal.

I certainly appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today. Senator BARTLETT. We are very pleased to have you here and glad to hear you testify.

I want to ask you one question. From your personal and other knowledge, are you positively convinced that the purposes desired here, the purposes which are sought, could not be accomplished if this wildlife range were smaller than 8,800,000 acres?

Mr. BRANDBORG. As you can well appreciate, Mr. Chairman, it is hard for any of us to study, as intensively as we would like, an area such as that that is proposed for designation as wildlife range in this legislation. I do place great confidence in the observations of people like Dr. Murie.

Dr. Murie knows wilderness, as well as any man can know it. He knows living requirements of the animals in these northern ranges. The observations which he has passed on give me confidence in the recommendation that has been made by the Department, and that has been made by authorities who have the background and practical field experience, like Dr. Murie.

I feel this about wilderness and, as I mentioned in my statement, I have had experience in wilderness. I worked, beginning in 1941 with the Forest Service in wild and undeveloped areas of Idaho, Oregon, and Montana. I also worked for a number of years for fish and game departments in Idaho and Montana and for the wildlife research unit in Idaho. Most of this time was spent in study of species with which you are familiar, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, elk, and deer. This took me into the back country and I became acquainted with the kind of people with whom I know you are acquainted in Alaska, the old-time mountain men, the sourdoughs, if

As I

we can use that term as applied to the people in the 48 States. became acquainted with those people I realized that while many of them don't define the need of wilderness in so many words, they feel strongly about the need for preservation of wilderness areas like this. In the brief time I have been here I have seen the growing awareness of wilderness values on the part of the members of our federation. I have seen the growth of this feeling within other civic and service organizations and I think the people in Alaska who have benefited from living close to wildlife and undeveloped country over a long period have come to value these resources very highly. They appreciate the chance to get out where there aren't roads, there aren't all the signs of civilization, where they can get right with themselves and to take the most that this land offers. I say this as a person who is now confined to the city, and as you probably do, find it somewhat disagreeable at times, particularly in 5 o'clock traffic congestion when you have had to listen to testimony all afternoon.

Senator BARTLETT. I want to say, if you permit me to, that your expressions about Dr. Murie are shared fully by me. I have known him for many, many years and respect him very much, and Mrs. Murie, too.

Mr. BRANDBORG. I have heard them speak very highly of you. Senator BARTLETT. I would consider this an appropriate time to say that I concur in the observations made by Mr. Gutermuth as to the splendid services of Clarence Rhode to the conservation of wildlife over the years. This service was unfortunately terminated last fall with his untimely death. I believe his name should be given to an appropriate area.

Mr. BRANDBORG. These are the people in whom we must place our confidence. As I said, we want to get up there and look at the area first-hand but this is impossible now. In the meantime, we have to place reliance on the recommendations of those who have suggested the area as it is provided for in this proposal to encompass some 9 million acres.

Senator BARTLETT. Thank you very much.

Our next witness is Dr. Howard Zahniser, executive secretary and editor of the Wilderness Society.

We are pleased to have you come up at last and are sorry to keep you waiting so long.

STATEMENT OF DR. HOWARD ZAHNISER, EXECUTIVE SECRETARY AND EDITOR, THE WILDERNESS SOCIETY, WASHINGTON, D.C.

Mr. ZAHNISER. Thank you. I experience every once in a while. hearings where things seem to be arranged alphabetically and so I come toward the end. I would yield alphabetically only to one person who was here, and that is William Zimmerman, Jr., who unfortunately had to leave and suggested that I say he was here representing Trustees for Conservation and had some material that he might have called to the attention of the committee and would be glad to furnish in a statement for the record later.

Senator BARTLETT. Mr. Zimmerman's presence in the hearing room during the better part of a long afternoon will be duly noted and any statement he may want to supply for the record will be gratefully received.

Mr. ZAHNISER. Thank you very much.

Now, as it is about twenty-five minutes to six I do not want to take any time in repetitive testimony. I have heard the case for the establishment of this area presented very effectively by people with whom I have been associated for years, and in whom I have the deepest confidence.

My name is Howard Zahniser. I am executive secretary and editor of the Wilderness Society, a national conservation organization with headquarters in Washington, D.C., at 2144 P Street NW., and in the West, in Moose, Wyoming, where reside our director to whom reference has been made several times here before, Dr. Olaus J. Murie, and his wife, secretary to the director, Margaret E. Murie, both of whom are deeply interested and intimately acquainted with Alaska and Alaskan conditions and both of whom have made field expedition studies into this area of which we have been thinking this afternoon. When I learned that a hearing was going to be held in the House of Representatives, at the end of last week, I talked with Dr. Murie, by telephone Saturday, and he told me then that he would send a statement that he would like to have me submit to the committee of the House, and that if it should happen a Senate committee hearing would be held, he would like to have it submitted there. So I am sure that you would welcome my submitting that statement to you.

Senator BARTLETT. You are right.

Mr. ZAHNISER. Unfortunately, the statement had not arrived when I left my office today, for these hearings, although I had expected it yesterday. But I will furnish copies to you.

Senator BARTLETI. The record will be kept open until it does arrive. (See p. 58.)

Mr. ZAHNISER. In addition to furnishing copies for the record, I will have the statement duplicated and furnished to you for your immediate convenience. When I learned yesterday that the Senate hearing would be held, I talked with Mrs. Murie, and found that by coincidence she is coming east this week and will be in Washington Thursday of this week, so if it should happen that the committee is holding any further sessions on Thursday, she would be glad to present her testimony too. Otherwise, she said she would like to make a statement herself for the record.

Senator BARTLETT. A further hearing at that time is not now contemplated. If a change should take place, you will be notified so Mrs. Murie may testify. If it does not take place, we will also be glad to have her statement.

Mr. ZAHNISER. I have nothing really further to contribute at this late hour, Senator Bartlett.

Senator BARTLETT. You endorse the bill?

Mr. ZAHNISER. I endorse the bill. I have been deeply interested, not only in the preservation of wilderness in a general sense, wherever wilderness can be preserved in our country, but I have been especially interested in the opportunity that still persists in Alaska that to a great extent has been dissipated by the wonderful development of our country down here. So ever since my professional concern with wilderness, I have been seeking in any way I can to contribute to the preservation of such an area in Alaska, and so some years ago, as editor of the quarterly publication that we issue, "The Living Wilderness,"

I began to seek the development of the background information that might contribute to that.

About 5 years ago I helped obtain and edited and published an article by Lowell Summer and George L. Collins, entitled "Arctic Wilderness," in the winter issue of 1953-54 of "The Living Wilderness."

Then after Doctor Murie conducted that expedition into the area that we were talking about, in the summer of 1956, we published a two-page report by him immediately of the results of that expedition that was carried on in cooperation with the Conservation Foundation, the New York Zoological Society, The Wilderness Society, and the University of Alaska.

Then we got Mrs, Murie to write an article entitled "A Live River in the Arctic," in which I felt, and feel that she conveys something of the feeling and importance of the area that no one else could convey.

Then when the Secretary of the Interior announced the Arctic Wildlife Range, we published a brief note on that, and at the same time a note again by Dr. Murie on the "Future of Brooks Range Wildlife," in 1957.

Lois Crisler, who is a member of the 15-person governing board of the Wilderness Society, with her husband, Herb Crisler, who was working for Walt Disney, obtaining some of the material we all later saw in "White Wilderness," wrote a book called "Arctic Wild,” published by Harpers, which is largely derived from the experiences that are possible to people like that in this area we are seeking to preserve. We published a review of that by our managing editor, Dr. George Marshall, just recently in our winter 1959 issue.

These articles I should be glad to prepare for your consideration for the record, and in addition to these, there are two or three other such background articles that I had thought when I came to this hearing I might summarize, but I am satisfied only to refer to them as I have here. I can list these articles as follows:

SOME ARTICLES AND ITEMS ON THE ARCTIC WILDLIFE RANGE

"THE LIVING WILDERNESS"

1. "Arctic Wilderness," by Lowell Sumner and George L. Collins. Winter 1953-54, pages 4 to 15.

2. "Resources and Prospects in Alaska," by Robert F. Griggs, reviewing "Wildlife in Alaska: An Ecological Reconnaissance." Autumn 1954, pages

16 to 19.

3. "Alaska with O. J. Murie," a news item on the 1956 Arctic wilderness expedition. Fall-winter 1956-57, pages 28 to 30.

4. "Where Wilderness Is Complete," by Lois Crisler. Spring 1957, pages 1 to 4. 5. "A Live River in the Arctic," by Margaret E. Murie. Summer-Fall 1957, pages 7 to 13.

6. "Arctic Wildlife Range" and "Future of Brooks Range Wildlife," two news items. Autumn 1957, pages 30 to 31.

7. "Nature, Life and Freedom," by George Marshall, including a review of "Arctic Wild," by Lois Crisler. Winter 1959, pages 18 to 21.

8. "Arctic Wildlife Range Bill," a news item. Spring 1959, page 29.

I knew of this hearing, as you know, only yesterday and was not able, in the time available, to incorporate these into a document, but I should be very glad to revise and extend my remarks enough to incorporate references to this background of published information which I know, if you haven't from your personal interest already had a chance to see, would be of interest to you.