What right do we have as human beings to trample it; to destroy it? In the name of skiing? Skiing is not the panacea for all human ailments, for all juvenile delinquency, for all spiritual needs. Skiing is a human enterprise.

What right do we have to destroy the earth? We are doing this more every single year. We propose to do it in the Grand Canyon because we need power to fill the cash registers. We propose to do it in the redwood country because the timber industry needs wider highways on which to run their trucks. We propose to do it in the Everglades because the land has to be drained to be used by real estate people and, supposedly, to keep the floods from inundating Miami. This is a pattern that is being set all over America, and the precedents that will be discussed by the ski group goes way and beyond whether or not a precedent will be set for the use of skiers. The precedent that will be set will be the continual intrusion upon the wilderness. Lands that have been set aside in perpetuity; and, little enough do we have left of them. If the skiers can do it, why can't the water skiers do it? If we want an Olympic team, why can't we say, "Dam up Yosemite Valley, we might have an Olympic team of the best water skiers which can be produced."

Is that the criteria here? It is not. It is man and the last vestiges of man's peace and tranquillity, those that are left in the wilderness. God knows, if there is anything we need in a metropolitan area, it is the proximity to that kind of a peaceful environment, and this is just about the last one that we have in southern California.

Thank you very much.

Mr. BARING. All right, thank you, sir.

Our next speaker is Mary Hughes.

STATEMENT OF MARY B. HUGHES, AUDUBON SOCIETY

Mrs. HUGHES. The members of the Pasadena Audubon Society are extremely concerned regarding the possible removal of 3,500 acres from the heart of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area. I have the stanch support from many of the society to protest these bills now being considered by Congress. Many members of our group, mostly senior citizens, are enjoying the leisurely trail from the Poop-Out Hill parking lot to South Meadows, the finest area left in southern California, for inspiring nature study and admiration of the unobstructed view of majestic peaks.

I, myself, make three stimulating and varied pilgrimages a year— spring, summer, and fall-to absorb this unspoiled grandeur, in solitude and meditation, away from the noise and tension of urban existence some 100 miles distant. I always bring friends to introduce them to this last unspoiled outpost of Gods creation, who soon return with friends and so on; the group of nature lovers ever growing. It would be a regrettable mistake for our so-called intelligent society to desecrate this wilderness area, by exploitation, depriving the thousands of annual visitors complete and unlimited access to the unparalleled virgin mountain country not yet invaded by man's "handiwork."

Thank you.

Mr. BARING. While the next panel is getting ready, we will call the next one in line.

Roger Madero, Mr. Osborne, it looks like, Dr. Moomaw, and Mr. Peters.

All right, the next speaker.

STATEMENT OF MISS KAROLA KRUSE, YUCAIPA, CALIF.

Miss KRUSE. I am Miss Karola Kruse of 11916 Fremont Street, Yucaipa, Calif., a junior at Yucaipa High School. I am testifying against bills which would open up the San Gorgonio wilderness to lift-skiing.

In my past Girl Scouting experiences many weekends were spent in long-remembered and existing camp outs, which were for some of the girls the only time ever spent in true wilderness. Happy to be away from civilization, we were on our own without the usual luxuries of home, learning to depend on ourselves.

Many times I have been with our church's youth group as we hiked into the wilderness for afternoons of fun and refreshment from the busy pace of everyday life.

As a teenager I often have the feeling that the general prejudged opinion of of the older generations toward us is that we lack ambition, enthusiasm, and goals for our future lives. Of some of us, this might be true. I feel that one of the greatest of many factors responsible for these conditions pertains to this case. Often there are adults who want to "improve" and make things easier and more enjoyable for our lives, but in the process our values become misplaced. With my father I have been fortunate in climbing a majestic and most beautiful natural wonder in southern California, Mount San Gorgonio. This may seem like a small feat to some people, but to me it was a goal to which I was challenged. I was proud of myself the day I reached the summit and could enter my name in the register. This seemed like an accomplishment I could feel justifiably proud of. Reaching goals of this sort gives young people a good foundation for the will to attain success in their future lives because they have experienced a measurable portion already.

If there were some mechanized method of depositing people on or near the top of "Grayback" all this would change. There would be no sense of achievement in climbing the summit if everyone who had enough money to pay the fare was able to ride to the top. I believe that the people who are willing to hike into the area are also going to respect and help preserve the natural state of the wilderness. A ski lift would have no way of filtering out those who are unconcerned for the beauty of nature, and who feel no particular responsibility towards the preservation of the region.

We have so few truly wilderness areas left in southern California. that I often wonder why each must be swallowed by commercialism. Despite the promises that might be made, there would never again be the same experience to be had-that of being genuinely isolated from civilization and its enterprises. If development were permitted, no amount of money acquired by profiters could equal the worth of this land in its once natural state and now lost to major roads of traffic and carved hillsides.

Thank you.

Mr. BARING. Very well, the next speaker will be Dr. Lathrop.

STATEMENT OF DR. EARL W. LATHROP, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, LOMA LINDA UNIVERSITY

Dr. LATHROP. Honorable chairman and members of the committee: The Department of Biology of Loma Linda University, Loma Linda, Calif., would like to take this opportunity to register its opposition to bills Nos. H.R. 6891, H.R. 7490, H.R. 7654, H.R. 8033, H.R. 8176, and H.R 8859, which propose to alter the boundaries of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area, removing a large segment from the center of an area of singular biological significance These bills would interfere with educational and scientific activities.

We would like to present the following points in defense of our position:

1. In an area as crowded as southern California, it is difficult to find unmolested natural environments where wildlife can be studied free from human disturbance. As the population of southern California increases these areas will become more and more difficult to find and the preservation and increase of wilderness areas is highly desirable for educational and scientific purposes.

2. Removing a segment from the middle of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area will affect far more than the designated area, as the clamor and bustle associated with public recreational facilities will affect the balance of organisms and scientific value of the natural environment far beyond the boundaries of a mechanized sport center. For good wilderness preservation, consolidation and not separation of regions is necessary. From this standpoint it would be far better to remove a segment from the edge of this wilderness area than from the

center.

3. The area being proposed as a recreational center is an easily accessible area for the study of high-altitude biology. This area should be preserved for educational and research purposes. To release this area as an additional commercialized center in the San Bernardino Mountains, while students and researchers would have to go to still less accessible areas for the activities, presents an additional problem for wildlife study in southern California.

Thank you.

Mr. BARING. Thank you, sir.

The next speaker is Rev. James G. Leovy.

STATEMENT OF REV. JAMES G. LEOVY, EPISCOPAL CHURCH

Reverend LEOVY. My name is Rev. James G. Leovy.

I am a native of southern California who has been acquainted since boyhood with the mountains of my State, both in this region and in the Sierra Nevada. Since my ordination to the ministry of the Episcopal Church in 1956, I have been actively involved in a variety of churchand community-sponsored camping programs serving both youth and adults. Since my freshman year in college in 1947, I have been an enthusiastic skier. Besides taking day and weekend ski trips each season, my wife and I have for several years saved at least half of our vacation time for a major ski trip. Last year we introduced our older child, then 32, to her first skiis.

In spite of this interest in skiing, and the fact that I personally might benefit from a developed ski area on Mount San Gorgonio, I am

convinced that any change in the present status of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area would be a serious mistake, even a tragic one, considering the overall recreational needs of southern California. I appreciate this opportunity to state some of my reasons for so feeling to this committee:

San Gorgonio is the only area in southern California where one may readily be introduced to the beauties and the pleasures of our great mountains. It is comparable to the Sierra in a way that one of our other local mountains are. It has water, lovely meadows, big timber, and lovely, relatively isolated, camping sites, all within easy access of all people in this half of the State. There is no other area like it in southern California. Because it is there and is as attractive as it is, the San Gorgonio area has been the introduction to a love of the mountains for hundreds of thousands of people, myself included. This past summer I was involved in a program which introduced the mountains to children, young people, and adults. I was director of the Jefferson-Hoover camping program, which was a communitysponsored unit in the summer recreational and enrichment program for Los Angeles County youth funded by the Office of Economic Opportunity under the war on poverty. We operated the last 5 weeks of the summer and served approximately 275 persons in 6 separate sessions. These were enrolled from economically deprived families in the Negro and Mexican-American areas of Los Angeles. The children ranged from age 8 to 15; one program was a camp session for families. Over 85 percent of our children had had no previous camping experience.

Our staff was also recruited from the economically deprived and minority areas of the city. Many of these young people also had no previous camping experience. They included Negroes, MexicanAmericans, orientals, "anglos," a part Indian, and a Cuban refugee. They are a wonderful group of fine young Americans. We put the staff through a week of rigorous training at the beginning of the summer, and in spite of their inexperience, they did a remarkable job with the youngsters committed to their charge. Incidentally, the young people on the staff came out of the program with excellent qualifications for future jobs as camp counselors; several of them felt the beginnings of vocations in teaching or the social service profes

sions.

We ran four sessions in the San Gorgonio area, each week increasing the difficulty of the program as the staff gained experience and confidence. The effects on the children, from the asphalt jungles of the city, of being able to camp out at Slushy Meadows, to hike to one of the high lakes, or on toward the peak, were truly touching. For many of them it was the first time in their lives where they could feel the impact of a beneficent natural environment, unspoiled by man and his works. For others it was the first time they had proved to themselves that they could accomplish something stirring on their own, that they could feel that they had conquered something hard and new, that they were "winners." Even the gripers, even the little 8-year-olds who only got as far as Slushy Meadows for an overnight were proud that they had done it by themselves, carrying their own food and gear.

Our final week was spent in the High Sierras with an older group, 13 to 15 year olds. This was, for the staff certainly, the high point of the program, in terms of difficulty and achievement, and admittedly, also in terms of having miles and miles of the beauty that the San Gorgonio area offers on a relatively small scale. However, I would stress that we could not have begun to think of going to the Sierras with our kind of program, if our raw, green staff had not been able to learn and to practice and to use San Gorgonio as an inservice training base to wilderness camping. I might add that this has been true over the years for hundreds of other groups and for tens of thousands of individuals.

For all those in our area who would begin to love the mountains, San Gorgonio, and only San Gorgonio, provides this kind of stepping stone. It is the only area, also, where those who already love the mountains can undertake easily and pleasantly the kind of conditioning hiking and camping that is necessary before going back to the Sierras. I would stress also that it is precisely the part of the San Gorgonio wild area where the ski development would have to go that is the key region to the kind of use I have been talking about. It is only the north slope of San Gorgonio down to the lower part of the meadows that has the water, the meadows, the timber, the wildlife, and, above all, the access that is so unique in southern California.

Finally, there is no question that any development of this precious region would destroy its singular present values. Whatever may be said on the other side, the bottom of manicured ski runs do not make attractive campsites. One has only to look at as attractive and well operated an area as Mammoth in the summer to know this. The scars of cleared trails and life equipment are very hard to hide. This is not to mention what the impact on the needs of the hundreds of thousands that are being talked of as coming into the area would be. These multitudes in the winter would need sanitation facilities, in quantity. These would need piped water in immense quantity. They would need roads for access; structures for shelter and safety. This relatively small area would be changed forever.

The greatest loss would be to the spirit. Kids like those we took in this summer, and the thousands that the regular camps and other organizations take in, would lose the right in southern California to feel like pioneers, like the American Indian in the forest, to be alone and to conquer, not just an inspiring mountain, but something in themselves. There is no place else they can go; there is no other area that is both gentle and challenging, and yet still untouched. Please leave it for future generations of our children to discover as it is.

Thank you very much.

Mr. HOSMER. Reverend Leovy, why can't these children be introduced to the love of a mountain with a ski lift on it and then work up to one farther away without a ski lift?

Reverend LEOVY. Because, it seems to me, what thrills these kids from the city were to get out of the environment from which they come, with which they are familiar, and into an environment where they see nature at its munificent best without the hand of man.

If you get this development in, you are going to change the character of that area. It is inevitable. Not only will the roads that this