WILDERNESS PRESERVATION SYSTEM TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1964 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to adjournment, at 9:55 a.m., in the committee room, 1324 Longworth House Office Building, the Honorable Walter S. Baring (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Mr. BARING. The Subcommittee on Public Lands will come to order. Our first witness this morning will be the Honorable John D. Dingell, author of H.R. 9162. Mr. Dingell, we are very happy to welcome you here this morning as our colleague and also as one of the authors of this legislation. STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN D. DINGELL, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF MICHIGAN Mr. DINGELL. It is a pleasure to be here, Mr. Chairman. I want to especially thank the chairman of the subcommittee and also the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Aspinall, for making possible this hearing today. As the chairman has indicated, I am the author of H.R. 9162, one of the many wilderness bills pending before the committee today. Before I read my prepared statement, I would like to say H.R. 9162 was worked out in consultation with the distinguished chairman of this committee, the officials of the administration, and with a number of persons interested in establishing a meaningful program for the protection of the wilderness areas in this Nation. It has my wholehearted and enthusiastic endorsement. I think it is a good bill. I am also author of an earlier version of a wilderness bill, H.R. 2001, which I think is also a good bill, although the two differ slightly in approach. I do not want my prepared statement to be considered as critical of H.R. 9162. It is simply offered to this committee in an effort to be helpful so that certain small points in the wilderness bill H.R. 9162, which I believe need improvement, may be perfected. I feel, Mr. Chairman, we now have an opportunity to gain House passage of a wilderness bill that will represent a highly reasonable approach to the objective of preserving certain parts of this Nation as wilderness. The measures before this committee embody provisions that have come out of study and evaluation of our objectives in terms of the needs that have been defined by conservation groups as well as the commodity users of resources who have been critical of certain of the provisions of earlier wilderness measures. Mr. Chairman, I am encouraged by the efforts of this committee and the full committee chairman to bring our deliberations to a productive conclusion by reporting a bill that I feel will satisfy our need for effective wilderness protective legislation. The people in Michigan whom I represent have urged me to participate with you in the effort to gain House passage of a sound wilderness bill as promptly as this can be accomplished. Mr. Chairman, I would point out that our MUCC, Michigan United Conservation Clubs, representing some 60,000 of our citizens of Michigan in the organized conservation movement, have repeatedly urged passage of a meaningful wilderness bill, and of course they are, for all intents and purposes so far as I am concerned, and I think as far as anyone is concerned, the voice of organized conservation in our State and the citizens who are particularly interested in this matter. I am pleased to contribute to these hearings and to give every possible assistance to the committee in the effort to secure passage of this vitally important conservation legislation. It was my privilege last November to introduce a revised version of the wilderness bill, H.R. 9162, which embraced amendments that were then suggested as a means of resolving the major differences that had grown out of discussions between sponsors of earlier wilderness bills and those who had opposed their passage. I was pleased to have this part in the cooperative effort that is being made to clear the way for hearings and favorable action by this committee toward House. enactment of a measure that will meet wilderness protection needs. At the time I introduced this revised bill I made clear that I wished to consider later possible amendments to this measure that might prove, in my judgment, to be desirable. During recent weeks I have studied this bill, and after consultation with representatives of our interested Federal agencies, my friends in our national conservation groups, and the chairman and other members of this body, I have arrived at recommendations which I would like to offer this committee here today. I shall not take time to emphasize the vital importance of this legislation which many of us regard, and President Kennedy described so aptly, as one of the most significant conservation landmarks of recent years. This measure has solid support from the present administration and our wilderness agencies and all of our major conservation organizations. People from over the entire Nation are urging its enactment. No single item of conservation legislation has received broader support or wider advocacy by our publicity and educational media including the press, radio, and television. The time has now come for us to reach agreement, to complete the resolution of our differences, and to pass a bill that will serve our country well in preserving our wilderness heritage. My revised bill, H.R. 9162, calls for inclusion of only the national forest wilderness and wild areas, and the one canoe area in the National Wilderness Preservation System to be established upon its enactment. Other areas of Federal wilderness lands-the national forest primitive areas, and areas of wilderness within the jurisdictions: of the National Park Service and the Fish and Wildlife Servicewould be added to the wilderness system only after careful reviews that call for field studies and hearings, and upon the recommendation of the President to the Congress. The Congress would then have to take affirmative and positive action in designating those wilderness units for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. The wilderness bills which I introduced earlier in this Congress. and sponsored in the 87th Congress, like others of the earlier House bills and the Senate's act, S. 4, have called for a different procedure in bringing the primitive areas, and units of wilderness within the parks and wildlife areas into the National Wilderness Preservation System. The procedure set forth in my revised bill, H.R. 9162, does. not in my judgment provide adequately for the protection of wilderness units within these two jurisdictions pending the action of Congress on the Presidential recommendation for their inclusion in the wilderness system. For this reason I am suggesting an amendment which has been prepared for me by the House legislative counsel. This would provide needed protection for the roadless back country areas of parks, refuges, and the primitive areas while the administrative review of these areas is in progress and until Congress has acted to approve or reject the President's recommendation to Congress for each unit. This amendment, attached as appendix A to this statement, is something which would greatly improve my revised bill, H.R. 9162. Under the present language of this measure any primitive areas not reclassified in 10 years would go out of existence as wilderness. It is my belief, Mr. Chairman, that it is of the greatest importance that this language be changed to provide that each national forest primitive area shall continue to be administered under status quo regulatory protection of the Forest Service as on the date of the act until Congress has acted on a Presidential recommendation regarding it or until Congress has taken other action. Similar provision should be made, through the amendment I am offering (attached as appendix B) for the protection-in lieu of congressional action-of back country roadless units of over 5,000 acres within the park and refuge areas. Without the safeguards provided in these two similar amendments, my bill, H.R. 9162, would lack essential wilderness protective features that have been provided in the Senate's act (S. 4) and each of the earlier House bills sponsored by me and a number of my colleagues. The only other amendments that I wish to offer here today are designed to provide a uniformity in the application of wilderness protective features of this legislation to all wildlands within both of the departmental jurisdictions with which the bill is concerned. I believe that all of these areas should be given protection under the provisions of this bill, now as well as after the reviews and affirmative action of Congress, in placing these areas in the wilderness system. To accomplish this I am recommending amendments (appendix C) that through the addition of a phrase or two in a few places will provide reference to the Secretary of the Interior where the present language refers only to the Secretary of Agriculture. This will make possible the application of the standards and provisions for wilderness protection to park and refuge areas as well as the national forest wilderness. Omission of these small, but important, corrective amendments would leave the requirement that uniformity in safeguarding wild lands in the park and wildlife areas, as well as the primitive areas, 28-413-64-pt. 46 would have to be written in each bill that would authorize inclusion of these units in the wilderness system. Such a procedure would be cumbersome and would hamper the orderly legislative process that this legislation will establish. It is important that the procedures and safeguards for protecting wilderness and for addition to the wilderness system and receiving contributions and gifts be the same in the case of each area whether it falls within the jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, as in the case of the parks and wildlife areas, or as a national forest primitive area within the Department of Agriculture's jurisdiction. Equal authority for wilderness protection should be granted to both the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture. I am deeply grateful, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity to appear here today and to suggest these amendments in a spirit of cooperation that I hope will encourage and assist the committee in its deliberations. I feel that we are nearing the successful culmination of our long effort. I want to contribute to this in every way that I can to assure the enactment of a good wilderness bill which will provide protection of wilderness in this country for the benefit of future generations. Thank you. (Appendixes A, B, and C follow:) APPENDIX A AMENDMENT TO H.R. 9162, PROPOSED BY Page 5, line 8, strike out "Primitive" and all that follows down through the period on line 13 and insert in lieu thereof the following: "Each primitive area as it exists on the date of enactment of this Act, or as modified as provided in this subsection, shall continue to be administered by the Secretary of Agriculture as a primitive area until Congress shall by law provide otherwise." APPENDIX B AMENDMENT TO H.R. 9162, PROPOSED BY MR. Page 5, strike out line 14 and all that follows down through and including line 3 on page 6 and insert in lieu thereof the following: "(c) The Secretary of the Interior shall review all roadless portions comprising five thousand or more contiguous acres of parks, monuments, and other units of the national park system, and such portions of, or roadless islands within, wildlife refuges and game ranges under the jurisdiction of the Secretary of the Interior on the effective date of this Act and shall report to the President his recommendations as to the suitability of each such portion for continued preservation as wilderness. The President shall advise the United States Senate and the House of Representatives of his recommendations with respect to the designation as wilderness of each such portion for which review has been completed together with maps and definitions of boundaries. Each such recommendation shall become effective only if so provided by an Act of Congress, and each such portion shall continue to be administered by the Secretary of the Interior as roadless until Congress has acted on a recommendation of the President regarding the area, as provided in this subsection, or until Congress has determined otherwise." APPENDIX C AMENDMENTS TO H.R. 9162, PROPOSED BY MR. Page 9, line 19; page 10, line 6; page 12, line 19; page 13, line 22; page 15, line 9; page 15, line 14; after the word "by" insert the following: "or in accordance with". Page 15, line 7; after the word "Agriculture" strike out the word "is" and insert the following: "and the Secretary of the Interior are". Page 15, line 12; after the word "Agriculture" insert the following: "and the Secretary of the Interior". Page 15, line 21; after the word "Agriculture" strike out the word "is" and insert the following: "and the Secretary of the Interior are each”. Mr. DINGELL. In conclusion, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I want to thank this committee again for its sincere and careful consideration of this legislation. I want to express my particular gratitude to the distinguished chairman of the full committee and the chairman of the subcommittee for their wholesome and for their helpful and careful consideration of this problem. I want to say that, to me, the chairman of the full committee has been particularly helpful in my consideration of this legislation, and I owe him, and this committee, and the subcommittee and the subcommittee's distinguished chairman a vote of thanks and gratitude for their careful consideration of this matter. Mr. BARING. Thank you, Mr. Dingell. We held hearings in three different cities in the West, in Olympia, Wash., Denver, Colo., and Las Vegas, Nev., at which places we heard some 500 witnesses, and these were witnesses primarily from the 11 Western States. They were a very fine group of people and the vast majority of them seemed to indicate that your bill provided for the multiple use that we are looking for in the West a lot better than the other bills before us. The chairman of the full committee. Mr. ASPINALL. Mr. Chairman, I wish to express my personal appreciation to our colleague from Michigan, Mr. Dingell, for his commendatory remarks of the chairman of the full committee as well as the chairman of the subcommittee. May I return the compliment, by saying that the gentleman from Michigan has been very helpful and very cooperative in the work that he has put in on this particular legislation. It is always refreshing to have a colleague, not a member of the committee, who comes up with substantive and constructive offerings on any legislation. As I understand your statemen, Mr. Dingell, and the amendments you offer, they are very much in line, or they are in line, with those suggestions that you made to me in your letter of April 15, 1964. Is that not correct? Mr. DINGELL. That is correct, Mr. Chairman. Mr. ASPINALL. Mr. Chairman, in order to save time and have the committee record complete in this respect, I would ask unanimous consent that the letter of April 15, 1964, by Mr. Dingell addressed to the chairman of the full committee, together with the letter of the chairman under date of April 20, 1964, in reply to Mr. Dingell's letter be made a part of the record at this place. Mr. BARING. Without objection, it is so ordered. Mr. DINGELL. I think that would be most helpful, Mr. Chairman. |