National forest wilderness-type areas-Name, date of establishment, and acreage of area and national forest, by States, as of Dec. 31, 1961 National forest wilderness-type areas-Name, date of establishment, and acreage of area and national forest, by States, as of Dec. 31, 1961-Continued WILD AREAS-Continued Blue Range primitive area enumerated for Arizona; not in New Mexico. National forest wilderness-type areas-Name, date of establishment, and acreage of area and national forest, by States, as of Dec. 31, 1961-Continued PRIMITIVE AREAS-Continued Selway-Bitterroot primitive area enumerated for Idaho; not in Montana. 706, 952 290, 805 1,869, 356 National forest wilderness-type areas-Name, date of establishment, and acreage of area and national forest, by States, as of Dec. 31, 1961-Continued Hon. WAYNE N. ASPINALL, DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY, Washington, D.C., January 15, 1962. Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Reference is made to your request to the Secretary of Defense for the views of the Department of Defense with respect to H.R. 293, 299, 496, 776, 1762, 1925, and 2008, 87th Congress, bills to establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the permanent good of the whole people, and for other purposes. The Department of the Army has been assigned responsibility for expressing the views of the Department of Defense on these bills. These bills would establish a National Wilderness Preservation System, to be composed of certain areas within the national forests, the national park system, the national wildlife refuges and game ranges, and such additional public lands as may be included under procedures set forth in the bills, in order to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness. The wilderness system would be devoted to the public purposes of recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical use, and, in order to attain these objectives, the bills would impose certain restrictions on use and developments within the system. With respect to this question of preservation of wilderness areas, the attention of the committee is invited to the message from the President on February 23, 1961, relating to the Nation's natural resources, wherein he urged the Congress to enact a wilderness protection bill along the general lines of S. 174. The Department of the Army, on behalf of the Department of Defense, is in favor of the National Wilderness Preservation System, designed, as it is, for the permanent good of the whole people. Insofar as defense interests are concerned, the President's authority under section 3(c) (2) of the bills to establish and maintain facilities needed in the public interest is sufficient to insure that any specific areas within the wilderness system which might become necessary for the national defense would be readily available. Since the bills are in accord with the President's views, enactment of the legislation is supported. This report has been coordinated within the Department of Defense in accordance with procedures prescribed by the Secretary of Defense. The Bureau of the Budget advises that, from the standpoint of the administration's program, there is no objection to the presentation of this report for the consideration of the committee. Sincerely yours, Hon. WAYNE N. ASPINALL, ELVIS J. STAHR, Jr., FEDERAL POWER COMMISSION, Chairman, Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs,, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Enclosed are three copies of the revised report of the Federal Power Commission on the subject bills. It is requested that this report be substituted for the Commission's previous report on these bills which was submitted to your committee by our letter dated April 27, 1961. It is contemplated that this report may be released to the public within 3 working days from the date of this letter unless there is a request that its release be withheld. Sincerely yours, JOSEPH C. SWIDLER, Chairman. FEDERAL POWER COMMISSION REPORT ON H.R. 293, 299, 496, 776, AND 1925, 87TH CONGRESS (Bills to establish a national wilderness preservation system for the permanent good of the whole people and for other purposes) The enactment of any one of these "Wilderness Act" bills would establish a national wilderness preservation system, comprised of federally owned lands taken from the following: (1) areas within national forests classified by the Secretary of Agriculture or the Chief of the Forest Service as "wilderness," "wild," "primitive," "canoe," or "roadless," the primitive areas being subject to a review by the Secretary of Agriculture within 15 years from the effective date of this act, except that under the provisions of H.R. 1925, wilderness, wild, or canoe areas "shall be reported to the Congress without further review before the beginning of the first session of Congress following the enactment of this act, and at the close of the second session of Congress thereafter each such area shall become a unit of the *** system if *** not rejected by a concurrent resolution passed by the Congress"; (2) national parks and monuments "embracing a continuous area of 5,000 acres or more without roads, and such additional units of the national park system as the Secretary of the Interior shall prescribe," which are subject to certain later designations within a specified period; (3) such wildlife refuges and game ranges, or portions thereof, as the Secretary of Interior shall designate. Within 5 years after the date of this act, the Secretary shall survey |