STATEMENT OF MUIR DAWSON, INDIVIDUAL, LOS ANGELES, CALIF. Mr. DAWSON. Gentlemen, my name is Muir Dawson. As a skier for over 30 years in southern California and a regular visitor to the San Gorgonio area in winter, spring, and summer for the last 25 years, I feel I can understand the desires of both the skiers and the conservationists concerning the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area. If it were truly possible to open a small portion of the wilderness area for commercial ski development without damaging wilderness values-then, I would be in favor of taking this step. If it were truly possible to give the skiers who need mechanical means to get them up a mountain what they want without damaging or destroying the area for other uses, then I would be in favor of opening up San Gorgonio. My experience, however, leads me to believe that this dual role is not possible. Most scenic area would be taken by ski development. The area proposed for commercial skiing is in the very heart of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area-the most scenic and most cherished places visited by ski tourers, campers, and hikers. Trading 3,500 acres in the heart of the areas for a similar number of adjacent acres of relatively uninteresting territory is hardly a fair trade. With buildings, parking lots, chair lifts, cleared ski trails, and roads placed in this heartland of San Gorgonio, it is difficult to see what would be left to interest users other than downhill skiers. Ski development would change character of lower area as well. It is clear that a development of the size envisioned by the proponents of the bill being considered would eventually bring with it the need for wider highways, gas stations, hotels, motels, and restaurants. Thus the ski development would change the character of other parts of the San Gorgonio area as well as the wilderness. Thank you, gentlemen. STATEMENT OF MR. AND MRS. F. W. BRATTEN, INDIVIDUALS, RIVERSIDE, CALIF. Mr. BRATTEN. Gentlemen, my name is F. W. Bratten. If areas of development for human recreation are to be preserved in a natural state, they must be preserved today. Why such a simple statement still needs to be said is so disturbing because we see our open spaces disappearing swiftly in favor of capital development everywhere. Why do we have to fight to save every inch? Skiers are recreationists, they need areas to ski. Unfortunately, they also bring along commercial interests; if this is a fact of life, then the skiers must be forbidden. If the skiers can come alone, they have a right to some of San Gorgonio wilderness. Can they do without the money development? Wild areas must be protected from destruction at every level: Congress, the State legislature, county supervisors, and city councils, and individuals at the ballot box must care. If once wild lands are lost, they are so irretrievably gone. It is up to you officially, to decide today's dollar or tomorrow's treasure. It takes wisdom and courage, perhaps vision. Thank you, gentlemen. STATEMENT OF SEYMOUR OSSOFSKY, CHAIRMAN OF THE SKI MOUNTAINEERS SECTION OF THE SIERRA CLUB Mr. OssOFSKY. Gentlemen, I am Seymour Ossofsky. I am here to speak to you on why I oppose commercial ski development of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area. I speak as an avid skier with 20 years experience. For the last 10 of those years, I have been skiing virtually every weekend-and taking skiing vacations wherever I could find snow in this area or hundreds of miles away. I have skied from Maine to Alaska-and at most major resorts in this country. I have ski toured in the Sierra Nevadas and the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area for years. I also speak as the chairman of the ski mountaineers section of the Sierra Club chapter in this area. I have been an official of that organization in various capacities for 7 years. I am also a member of the Far West Ski Association. Thus, I speak as a person devoted to resort skiing as well as wilderness (cross-country) skiing. Three key reasons why I oppose these bills.— First, San Gorgonio is greatly overrated as a ski area. Commercial skiing would spoil one of southern California's most important recreational areas in summer as well as in winter. Third, San Gorgonio is irreplaceable as a wilderness area. But, it is easily replaceable as a proposed ski area. Wind and snow-two reasons why San Gorgonio is greatly overrated as a ski area. Flying over San Gorgonio or viewing it from the car en route to Palm Springs, the area looks as if it were made for skiers. But, after 10 years of ski touring into that area, I have come to realize how deceiving San Gorgonio can be from a distance. I have found that many times the upper slopes (10,000 feet) are so windblown that there are bare spots even though it looks like a solid sheet of snow from a distance. It is so windblown that the snow cover is thin-only a few inches. It is so windblown that the tops of many rocks jut through the snow cover. In short, the upper section of the proposed ski area is swept by high winds which blow much of the snow away. It is not a sheltered bowl. It is literally wind blasted much of the time. The lower elevations are protected from the wind. And, they do get more snow than most other local areas. But, they still do not get enough snow for regular, dependable skiing. I have learned about this through experience. As a longstanding official of the Ski Mountaineers, I have had to reschedule or cancel many ski tours into that area because of lack of snow. It is simply not dependable. The local ski-lift operators who use Yankee ingenuity and produced manmade snow for their areas have a far longer and more depend able season than the San Gorgonio area. Maybe we need more Yankee ingenuity in southern California. San Gorgonio is overrated as a ski area in another important respect-its convenience to Los Angeles. I have timed the drive from the end of the road at Poopout Hill to my home in Los Angeles, near La Brea and Rodeo Boulevard-many times. It takes approximately 3 hours on a Sunday evening during the winter desert resort season. Unfortunately, the winter desert resort and skiing seasons conflict. The traffic is bumper to bumper now on the San Bernardino Freeway during that period. Think what it would be with added ski traffic. But in contrast, it will only be 4 or 5 hours' drive to projected ski resorts in the Sierra Nevadas such as Mineral King and Robinson Basin. Both offer far better skiing than San Gorgonio; and Mineral King is even now being bid upon for development in the very near future. Overrated as a ski area, but cannot be overrated in its importance to southern California as a wilderness area. For literally thousands of summer-winter hikers, strollers, campers, ski tourers, people who just want to get away from it all San Gorgonio is the only place of its type in southern California. This is particularly true in the summer, and I think it is important to remember that San Gorgonio is more than just a winter recreational area. When I think of putting in a ski resort which uses up Slusky Meadows and Dry Lake, I think of a playground with a railroad switching yard in the middle of it. That playground analogy is more accurate than one may suspect. Thousands of children use the San Gorgonio area every year as an opportunity to get away from it all into the wilderness with their parents, church groups, youth organizations, et cetera. It is hard for a child to think he is truly roughing it in the wilderness when parking lots, buildings, and trams are nearby. The plain fact is that Slushy Meadows and Dry Lake are two of the major sources of running water in the San Gorgonio area; favored camping places for thousands, summer and winter. We need San Gorgonio as a wilderness area; we do not need it as a ski area. It is that simple. San Gorgonio as a wilderness area cannot be replaced. And, it will not be a wilderness area if commercial enterprises intrude. There are no gray areas here. And, the facts are, there are other alternatives; in the Sierra, and locally. Even more important, San Gorgonio is vastly overrated as a ski area. Why give up a first-rate wilderness area enjoyed by thousands the year round for a second-rate ski area, sought mainly by people who have other ski areas available now, with more coming in the future. Thank you very much, gentlemen. STATEMENT OF PAUL R. COOLEY, INDIVIDUAL, LOS ANGELES, CALIF. Mr. COOLEY. Gentlemen, as an experienced mountaineer and as a concerned native of southern California, I strongly protest the proposed invasion of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area for development for family winter recreation. I believe the following points are pertinent: 1. San Gorgonio, as the only remaining undeveloped high mountain area in southern California, affords a unique opportunity for escape from mechanized civilization. Because of its proximity to metropolitan areas, its general accessibility, and its unique character, the wilderness area is heavily used in both winter and summer by groups composed of people of all ages and experience levels. 2. The proposed development in the Dry Lake Basin would emasculate the wilderness area. While the addition of the Whitewater River drainage would be welcome, it would in no way compensate for the development and loss of the Dry Lake Basin. Because I have made several dozen trips to the area, and have climbed to the top of San Gorgonio Mountain four times from diverse directions, I can personally vouch for the accuracy of the above state ments. I believe I can speak not only for my family and myself, but also for the 30 or 40 people with whom I have climbed in the area whose names do not appear on the witness list. Thank you, gentlemen. STATEMENT OF MRS. VIRGINIA H. FIRTH, INDIVIDUAL, SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF. Mrs. FIRTH. Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, my name is Virginia H. Firth. My point of view is that of an officeworker who by the end of the week is wound up and weary of being confined within four walls where the telephone, typewriter, and other office machines create a constant background of mechanical sounds. So, it is real physical and emotional need to get out of doors and far away from the necessities of civilization, to go where there are no cars, no buildings, no manmade things to get in the way of the natural beauty of the wilderness. In hiking these trails where all others are also on foot, there is a healing of the spirit and a toning up of the body. It is a getting back to Mother Nature, to the primary source with its untouched streams, meadows, trees, and heights. This primitive area is needed more than ever as our world daily becomes more mechanized. This is not a place to put in roads so that crowds of cars and masses of people can rush in and despoil this beautiful area. This place should be held in trust for the next generation to enjoy even as thousands of us now do each year. Thank you. STATEMENT OF DOROTHY TRAVER, INDIVIDUAL, SAN BERNARDINO, CALIF. Miss TRAVER. It is vital to keep San Gorgonio as a natural area without a ski lift. I have spent vacations in the mountains in San Bernardino County since I was a child. We used to camp in Big Bear, Little Bear, and Forest Home. Now, as county librarian, I go to mountain communities where there are library branches and bookmobile stops. The country surrounding San Gorgonio is almost the only part of the mountains which has not become an extension of the metropolitan area. I still go to Barton Flats and Seven Oaks where families and boys and girls attending camps enjoy birds, animals, wild flowers, and mountain streams and lakes. Children attending camp often hike up San Gorgonio, an experience never forgotten. I do not see how there could be a ski lift with an access road without ruining the natural beauty which people now enjoy. Publicity about opening up San Gorgonio to more people ignores the fact that more than 50,000 people use it each year now, and that many of them are children from low-income families who have no other chance to enjoy a wilderness area. President Johnson has asked that the Wilderness System be enlarged. We need to keep the wilderness area in San Gorgonio as it is. If it is destroyed, there will be nothing in southern California to replace it. Thank you very much, gentlemen. STATEMENT OF MRS. F. A. PETERS, EXECUTIVE BOARD, BEAUMONT WOMAN'S CLUB Mrs. PETERS. Mr. Chairman and members of the Public Lands Subcommittee, my name is Mrs. F. A. Peters. As dean of chairman and member of the executive board, I was asked to represent the Beaumont Woman's Club at the hearings today. Our position is to oppose the various House bills which would remove any part of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area for the purpose of commercial recreational development. In March of 1964, the Committee on Conservation of the Beaumont Woman's Club, initiated a resolution, which, following approval locally, was submitted to the De Anza District of 28 Women's Clubs in the county of Riverside. Favorable action was taken on this resolution at the De Anza District of Women's Clubs convention, April 21, 1964. The resolution reads as follows: Whereas, our rapidly growing Southern California population requires wildlands to escape the pressures of civilization, more than it needs additional recreational developments; and, Whereas, the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area is one of the few sizable remaining wilderness areas in Southern California, and is one of the most heavily used such area in the United States; and, Whereas, Ski promoters are seeking the exclusion of the heart of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area from those lands covered by the wilderness Bill now before Congress: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the De Anza District, No. 23, California Federation of Women's Clubs opposes the removal of any lands from the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area for the purpose of ski or other developments. At a meeting of the executive board of the Beaumont Woman's Club, November 1, 1965, our previous stand in the matter of this resolution was unanimously confirmed by members of the current executive board. An extensive program of study and education is carried on by our Federated Women's Clubs at the local, State, and national level to assure if possible, the wisest use of our country's natural resources. In Riverside County each year, women's clubs, individually, and through the De Anza district, collectively, contribute materially to support such conservation projects as "Penny Pines Plantations." |