ness, but also in surrounding areas. If many trees are removed or soils graded or water sources taken over, the balance will obviously be upset. At Mount Baldy ski development, where water supply sources have been taken up in the operation of flush toilets and other ski area water uses, I have observed that a natural waterhole has dried up as a result. The fauna, from small birds to bighorn mountain sheep, have been driven out of the Mount Baldy area. If the meager high elevation water supplies of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area are taken up for commercial use, the results will be the same. This blighting of the wilderness heartland will also be felt in the surrounding area and in the remaining uncommercialized sections of the Broken Arrow Trail. This bill, if successful, will then make it impossible to observe and study a natural environment.

To take a primitive area hike along asphalt pavement, through cut forests, and beside bulldozed escarpments is fruitless. With items of commercialism near at hand, the incentive to practice and apply the skills of survival is gone. What value is there in practicing the techniques of survival in an area scarcely more challenging than a city park?

Proposed access roads and ski lift facilities will destroy about 8 miles of the trail itself. Specifically, the length of the Fish Creek Trail will be eliminated by construction of the access road up this canyon (6 miles), as will the portion of the trail which traverses along Dry Lake. The area of the Broken Arrow Trail from Dry Lake across the bench and traversing Charlton Peak (about 2 miles) lies directly in the path of the proposed ski developments.

If this bill is approved, it will be necessary to reroute the Broken Arrow Trail for primitive area hiking. There are, however, no alternate routes available to bypass the area of proposed development. The area which will be most likely added to the wilderness area if the bill is approved is not suitable for primitive area hiking because of its total lack of water. Furthermore, there is no major landmark which would constitute a goal or challenge in this new area. The only other wilderness in southern California suitable for primitive area hiking is the San Jacinto Peak area (the site of the previous Broken Arrow Trail), which has been intruded upon by the Palm Springs aerial tramway.

If H.R. 6891 is passed, primitive area hiking will be impossible in southern California because the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area is the only remaining suitable area.

Thank you.

Mr. BARING. Are there any questions of this panel?

Mr. HOSMER. Mr. Arnold, you pointed out the situation that occurred at Idyllwild when the tramway was put in. Both Mr. Schellhous and Mr. Minnich pointed out desirability of the primitive backcountry trails.

Would you be more explicit about what happened that diminished the desirability of Idyllwild?

civiliza

Mr. ARNOLD. At the Idyllwild area where we had our camp, tion move in around it without any question, total civilization. The final crowning blow was when the tramway went to the top of the mountain from Palm Springs and people could walk in a very short

distance into the area that the boys had previously spent a full day hiking into.

This now, and I only say this by virtue of what I have been told, this is developing into a very serious problem of people, so many people, going on the trails up there, that it is actually becoming almost a downtown civilized section of the area.

So they have completely taken out that backcountry, the place where boys could go and be in a country by themselves.

Mr. HOSMER. All right. What would happen here should this road go in but be closed during the nonskiing season? Would that ameliorate the situation any, or just what would it do?

Mr. ARNOLD. Well, it is always a very difficult thing to get boys to feel that they are in a wilderness if they hike down a road. Of course, if a road goes in, this would be the obvious place they would be going because they headed into that country.

Mr. HOSMER. Then, there could be the other effect, as Mr. Minnich mentioned?

Mr. ARNOLD. Yes, sir.

Mr. HOSMER. Thank you, sir. I have no further questions.

Mr. BARING. All right, gentlemen, you now have 40 minutes.

The next group of speakers will be Mr. Vincent Verinati, Rev. John Birch, the Redlands Fish & Game Conservation Association, and Marjorie Hambly.

Again, I am going to caution you to keep it brief, because we want to let as many speak in the time allowed as possible.

Now, the next speaker will be Rev. John Birch.

STATEMENT OF REV. JOHN W. BIRCH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF CAMP EVANGEL, BOARD MEMBER OF BARTON FLATS CAMP ASSOCIATION

Reverend BIRCH. Mr. Chairman and honored Members of the Congress, my name is Rev. John W. Birch, not to be confused with any other John Birch, living or dead.

My business, for the past 30 years has been boys and girls and their moral and spiritual development. I am a minister, engaged in religious education.

The San Gorgonio Wilderness Area is the laboratory, you might say, where part of my business is conducted.

As the executive director of Camp Evangel, located in Barton Flats, I have, as director and in other capacities, served in Barton Flats camp life for the past 19 years.

As a member of the executive board of the Barton Flats Camp Association, it is my privilege to share in the mutual camp problems of the other 25 to 26 nonprofit organizational camps in Barton Flats.

My request to testify before this committee stems from a concern that the Congress be fully aware of alternate land uses for the "ultimate public welfare" of wilderness areas referred to in bill H.R. 6891 as "most suitable for family winter recreational use."

Your committee and the Congress faces no small task in gathering information from strongly partisan groups and making a judgment on a basis of the "ultimate public welfare," whether the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area should be kept intact or be divided.

Since wilderness areas as they are now constituted by law, are national resources, their true value can only be assessed on the basis of the contribution they make to the "ultimate public welfare."

It is true the San Gorgonio Mountain slopes have tremendous commercial value as winter sports developments. Thousands of dollars could be realized each season by the group fortunate enough to gain the contract for the development and operation of the "necessary facilities." But is how much the public will pay to engage in certain activities the criteria of determining the "ultimate public welfare"? I wish to submit testimony of possible public welfare value of these areas that cannot be measured in dollars and cents.

I wish to list six points of fact that will be supported by testimony before this committee and make a reasoned judgment based upon them and submit an alternate land-use proposal for a section of San Gorgonio.

1. The heart of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area is a valuable asset to the programs of the various nonprofit organizational camps located in the adjacent Barton Flats Recreational Area.

2. The large majority of the camp organizations in the Barton Flats Recreational Area are in contract with the U.S. Forest Service for special-use permits of approximately 5 acres each on which thousands of dollars have been invested with the understanding that the surrounding Government land, including the wilderness area, is available for hiking, camping, horseback riding, and nature education. 3. Recent highway construction and increased general public use of the Barton Flats Recreational Area in the past few years has made the use of the wilderness area much more necessary to gain the seclusion so vital to a significant outdoor, next-to-nature experience.

4. The rapid population growth of the areas (Greater Los Angeles area) served by the various nonprofit youth organizations represented in Barton Flats indicate an overwhelming demand for the expansion of their facilities and services. The demand for increased usage of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area is a natural result.

5. Any changes in the boundaries of the area now classified as "wilderness" that will permit access roads or any form of commercial development within a proximity of 1 to 111⁄2 miles of the trails and the campsites presently used by the majority of the camping youth is of vital concern to the administrators of these nonprofit programs and the public which they serve.

6. How important is it that the areas used in the camping programs of these organizations should be kept isolated from any commercial development or access roads?

It is of major importance to the very preservation of our society. Documented evidence is not needed to substantiate the fact that the phenomenal growth of disregard for law and order and the swing away from the conventions on which our society is stabilized is a result of a breakdown of moral and spiritual values in our society.

Such youth agencies as the Sunday school, religious youth programs, YMCA, YWCA, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, Woodcraft Rangers, boys and girls clubs and various other nonprofit youth organizations are our first line of defense against the rising tide of juvenile and youth delinquency. They are deserving of the very best tools and facilities available.

The public's greatest opportunity in meeting this threat is in the revitalization-by support-of these programs that teach and demonstrate spiritual, moral, and social principles which are the "social bonds" of our national way of life.

Youth agencies have long ago recognized the prime importance of taking boys and girls out of their "asphalt jungle" environments into an environment of outdoor seclusion for the teaching and demonstration of these moral and spiritual verities.

The section of the San Gorgonio area presently used by the youth agencies is a tool or facility of increasing major importance to those dedicated organizations and administrators in their programs of moral and social welfare in the southern California area.

My reasoned judgment is this: The San Gorgonio Wilderness Area as a natural resource has great value to the general public welfarenot measured in dollars and cents-as a tool or a facility in our country's first line of defense against the rising tide of juvenile and youth delinquency and general disregard for law and order.

The criteria for judgment by the Congress of the United States is whether these values will be increased or decreased by proposed changes in the land use of sections of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area.

My specific proposal to the Congress in regards to H.R. 6891, H.R. 7490, H.R. 7654, H.R. 8033, H.R. 8176, and H.R. 8859 is as follows: In recognition of the factors that make a section of the San Gorgonio wilderness of prime value to the ultimate public welfare as a facility of environment for the purpose of teaching and demonstrating moral and social principles; and whereas this prime value is predicated upon a virtual wilderness classification, I propose that the Congress set aside that portion of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area most used by youth organizations as a national wilderness sanctuary for boys and girls. I propose that this area with a reasonable buffer zone against commercial development or access roads be dedicated for the use of boys and girls, their families, and counselors and that it be excluded from the considerations for other purposes under these bills-except present wilderness usages.

This area is defined and designated within a perimeter bounded on the west by a line drawn 1 mile west of U.S. Forest Service trail Nos. 1E05 and 1E04; and on the west and south by a line 1 mile west and south of trail 1W07 from its junction with 1E04 to the peak of San Gorgonio; on the south by a line 1 mile south of a connecting trail from the peak to trail 1E05; and on the east by a line 1 mile east of trail 1E05 and/or the South Fork of the Santa Ana River. See the map accompanying this proposal.

I would request this attached map be made a part of the file. Mr. BARING. Without objection, the map will be made a part of the file, not the record, but the file.

Reverend BIRCH. Thank you very much, sir.

Mr. BARING. Thank you, sir.

Now, I just called Mrs. John Gerhart.

Is Mrs. John Gerhart here?

Mrs. GERHART. Yes, sir.

Mr. BARING. I called on you with the last panel and perhaps you could make your statement for the record now.

We will now hear from Mrs. John Gerhart.

STATEMENT OF MRS. JOHN W. GERHART, PRESIDENT, LONG BEACH COUNCIL OF CAMP FIRE GIRLS, INC.

Mrs. GERHART. I am Mrs. John W. Gerhart. I am speaking for the Long Beach Council of Camp Fire Girls, which serves over 6,700 girls, men, and women in Long Beach, Lakewood, Dominguez, Signal Hill, Hawaiian Gardens, Dairy Valley, and Artesia. During each of the past 4 years, the adults in our council have voted to inform our Congressman, the Honorable Craig Hosmer, that we are opposed to the development of roads and structures in the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area. I can also speak as one who is very familiar with the area, because during the past 7 years my husband and I have hiked on every trail within its boundaries plus most of those on the fringe. We have also explored the desert lands in the vicinity of Mission Creek and the North Fork of the Whitewater as well as the wooded areas at the base of the Big Draw on the north slope of Gorgonio. Our Camp Fire council owns a resident camp near Green Valley Lake. But inasmuch as the San Bernardino Mountains are crowded with camps and cabins from Arrowhead to Big Bear, we transport our teenage campers to the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area in order to give them the experience of hiking away from civilization for periods of 2 to 4 days.

Why do we feel that this activity is a very valuable one?

First, the wilderness is an integral part of our American heritage. Only by living in the wilds-even for a few days-can today's citybred students really come to appreciate the tremendous accomplishments of our ancestors who trekked across this continent.

Second, the value of the wilderness to refresh body and spirit has been recognized since Biblical times. Closely confined by a complex civilization, we have begun to develop a recognition of the necessity of preserving a few islands relatively free from the touch of man.

Third, almost conversely, the girls learn to appreciate the comforts of civilization, which they have always taken for granted. For example, after a week in the back country, they become quite certain that the greatest achievement of mankind was the invention of a simple table and chair.

Fourth, a group which undertakes a backpack hike becomes welded together in the finest example of a unit of democracy. Each girl must accept responsibility in order to make the trip a success. She carries not only her own equipment but also her share of what is necessary for the common good. She arranges her own sleeping spot, but she also performs some of the general tasks of firebuilding, cooking, and cleanup. Differences of race, religion, color, or wealth are of no importance on the trail. Instead, a girl learns that each citizen has a contribution to make to the welfare of the group.

Fifth, there is the challenge of attempting a different and difficult activity. After hiking for a week in the wilderness, one of our seniors wrote that "Sometimes you have to put yourself to a test so that you will learn how great your physical and spiritual resources really are.' A long trek requires both stamina and courage. But the greater the challenge, the greater the feeling of accomplishment and self-confidence at the successful completion of the mission. To climb southern California's highest mountain provides a thrill which cannot be matched by any experience in the city.