the last region of undeveloped high country that is readily accessible.. Our lawmakers established different types of areas for different purposes because they knew that not all uses of a given area were compatible. I think that their wisdom is well demonstrated in the case of San Gorgonio. We have skiing or wilderness, but not both. The pressure of numbers on our wilderness is already being felt in San Gorgonio and elsewhere. It has been necessary to impose restrictions on the use of these wildernesses in order to prevent their destruction by the many who use them. As our population continues to concentrate in urban and suburban centers, there will be an even greater need to get away from the crowds. I do not feel that fighting a traffic jam into and out of a San Gorgonio parking lot, or waiting in a lift line for an hour with hundreds of others provides relief from weekday congestion. The pressure will get worse with more people and fewer undeveloped areas. Since we will not be able to create new wilderness in the way we can create new ski areas, the wilderness must be set aside now. CONCLUSION The current proposal to open San Gorgonio to development is neither the first nor will it probably be the last. The wilderness status of this region is preserved only by law, and laws can be repealed. Fortunately, the status of our national parks has not been threatened in this way. I hope that once the newness of our wilderness system wears off, it too will not face further challenges. I was unable to face the first challenge to San Gorgonio in 1937 because I was not yet born. I am grateful to those who faced it for me. Now it is my turn to act on my own behalf; after all, I will be but 62 years old in the year 2000, and plan to be still hiking then, just as I see persons of that age hiking in San Gorgonio now. I am also testifying today so that my children and grandchildren might accompany me there. The developers wish to provide a family recreation area in San Gorgonio. There is already one. Families with teenagers and young children, even with babies packed on their backs, young married couples, and fathers with Scout and youth groups. I have seen them all at San Gorgonio. Why, when other areas are available for skiing developments, must we destroy the last wilderness? There is surely room for both in the San Bernardino Mountains. Let us build new ski areas on other mountains which have already seen some development. Ski areas can be created by technology and their season extended by the use of such technological advances as snow machines. Unfortunately, we have no technology for the creation and extension of virgin wilderness. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Mr. BARING. Thank you, sir. Now, our next speaker, Mr. George Peters. STATEMENT OF GEORGE PETERS Mr. PETERS. Mr. Chairman and subcommittee members, I am a senior design engineer in the aerospace industry. I wish to enter the following statements in the record on any attempts to negate previous proposals on the House floor which soundly defeated attempts to commercialize the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area in southern California. This area encompasses the highest peak in southern California and has had the distinction of becoming one of the targets of the commercial ski interests who desire to place a complex of ski lifts, roads, buildings, and concessions in this wilderness area. Present attempts to override previous attempts to gain access to this area now take the subterfuge euphemism "family winter recreation." It would appear that this will be utilized to make an opening wedge for the later commercialized type family activity. My family and I use this area for hiking and backpacking many times when short weekends do not permit us to "escape" from the mad confusion of the Los Angeles smog basin. As an aerospace engineer, I find a constant requirement to get away to the quiet serenity of our rapidly diminishing forests and mountain areas. These breaks give one the renewals to tackle those difficult challenges of the week with new enthusiasm. The near proximity of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area for the many similar people within the Los Angeles area demands that it be maintained. As a father of two practically grown youngsters, I often reflect on the conditions I witnessed in North Africa during World War II-the invasions of man through the centuries gradually turned those areas into desolation-what will we leave of our natural heritage? Spasmodic snowfall quantities in the San Gorgonio area leave much to be desired for anything but small family-type winter recreation, where a family can hike into the area for a few hours of fun and then leave without despoiling the area. I hope to be on the trails in the area during the weekend when some of your members will make their field inspections. I sincerely hope I may meet some of them to talk over why the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area must be maintained. There are no equivalent trades for this marvelous peak and its environs. I would like to offer a map showing elevation comparisons. Mr. BARING. That map will be placed into the file, not in the record but in the file. Mr. PETERS. Thank you, sir. Mr. BARING. Did you have a question, Mr. Hosmer? Mr. HOSMER. Yes, Mr. Chairman. I would like to ask Mr. Peters one question. If a couple of million people could go up there and get some inner satisfaction from skiing around those hills, is that not for the greater good than a few thousand going up there and doing the same thing, going into ecologically virgin area? Mr. PETERS. I agree, it should be opened, but not by roadways, tramways, and this type equipment. The skiing is available, snow play is available, and I would like also to cite the Dyal bill as I understand it. Mr. HOSMER. Well, they will go in any way they want to go in; you cannot argue with the Dyal bill. If they want to go in on a ski lift, they are going in on a ski lift; they may not be overland skiers. They apparently get some inner satisfaction from that also they are people too. Mr. PETERS. I take opposition to this in this area. I think there are enough commercial-type ski activities and winter recreational activi ties now that are not fully used to capacity, and I think they could use those without opening this wilderness area. Mr. HOSMER. Your basic opposition to it is that it is not needed? Mr. PETERS. Yes, sir. Mr. HOSMER. As far as the equities between the skiers and the hikers are concerned, you will grant that the equities are essentially even? Mr. PETERS. I believe they are equal, and I think it should be kept equal on a wilderness basis, on a wilderness area basis and protected as such. Mr. HOSMER. Thank you, sir. Mr. PETERS. I hope I have answered your questions, sir. Mr. BARING. The next group, please. That would be Mr. Walter P. Taylor, as the first speaker. Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Chairman, if I come tomorrow, may I have a little more time? Mr. BARING. We will try to give you more time tomorrow, sir. Mr. BARING. Very well. Our next group will be Michael Ruiz, Bill Solberg, and Clinton Schonberger. STATEMENT OF MICHAEL RUIZ Mr. Ruiz. My name is Michael Ruiz and I attend Fremont High School in southern Los Angeles. I was a counselor at some of the camps up in San Gorgonio. We took kids up there ranging in age from 8 to 11 to our first camp. These kids had never, most of them anyway, had never been in the mountains at all. They told me after their experience up there that they had a great time and they wished they could do it again, and I believe that we should try to keep this thing going. But I don't think that a ski lift up there is going to give them the same excitement they had this year. We would take them up overnight into Slushy Meadow; we would take them horseback riding and things like this. The kids liked this sort of thing because it is kind of rough for them, it was hard, because they were younger kids. The older people, I guess, had just as much fun, too. But I am thinking of boys like the ones in my area that I supervise. They are younger than I am and they are considered juvenile delinquents. I was thinking about, at my own expense, taking them up there next year, but it is not going to look the same with a ski resort there; it is just not the way I had it planned. My boys had never been up in the mountains before in their lives. I think that this wilderness area should stay as it is, it should remain the same. Thank you. Mr. BARING. Now, there are several people living in big cities who have never seen a cow. Would you do away with all cows, just so they could go out into the country and see the country barren? Mr. Ruiz. I am not saying that; my boys have seen ski lifts on television, but they have never experienced them. I have experienced them by going up there, and I noticed before ski lifts have been in an area the place looks real nice. During the winter there are lots of people around and the place looks very attractive. But during the summer when the place is all closed up and the ski lifts are not working, the place looks kind of dead. Mr. BARING. Well, I will assure you there is lots of life with young people skiing at a ski resort or around a ski lift. It is a real go-go. Mr. Ruiz. The only trouble I have with my boys is trying to find something for them to do. During the winter they are going to school. They have schoolwork to do and it is hard enough just to keep them going to school, but I try my best. I have things that I put them doing at my house and things of other sorts. But during the summer when they have free time is the time that they have to spare, it is hard for me to keep them out of trouble. I thought maybe this year I had found a way. But I can't do it with that ski lift up there. Mr. BARING. Does that complete your testimony? Mr. BARING. Thank you, sir. The next witness, please. STATEMENT OF BILL SOLBERG Mr. SOLBERG. I'm Bill Solberg, a senior at Yucaipa High School. I live at 297 East County Line Road, Yucaipa, Calif. I would like to testify today before this committee as an individual in opposition to H.R. 6891 and related proposals to provide for family winter recreational use of a portion of the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area, and for other purposes. I have heard many conflicting stories today. I've been on the camp staff of the Grayback Council's Boy Scout Camp, Camp TuLakes, for the past 4 years. In this time I've done extensive hiking and camping in the San Gorgonio Wilderness Area. Each week during summer camp the campers take an overnight hike into the wilderness area from Thursday morning until Friday noon. We camp at various spots in the wilderness area, but the favorite of most of the boys seems to be South Fork Meadows. As a counselor I try to instill in every boy I hike with a greater appreciation of, and love for, his country and its beautiful wilderness. I remind every boy I hike with that this wilderness may soon not be wilderness unless everyone does his part to prevent it changing. The boys who hike into the wilderness from our camp carry out all their garbage and trash and sometimes they clean up messes left by other, less thoughtful, campers. This isn't much, but at least the boys are becoming more aware of the problem of conserving our wilderness. Also, we have conservation programs and classes where we try, among other things, to draw some relationship between man's rights and privileges in using the wilderness and his responsibilities to preserve that wilderness for future generations. You may see no relationship between my experience in a summer camp and the subject at hand, but I think it is very closely related. I think a road through South Fork Meadows would destroy or at least greatly damage this area for hiking and camping. If you are wondering why this area is so ideal for camping, I would list these reasons: The area is close enough to camps in the Barton Flats area that groups can easily hike into it. The area has plenty of running water which isn't common in this mountain range. The area has plenty of deadwood for fires. And the area has a natural beauty that only God could create and no man should be able to destroy. Skiing is great and I'm sure that San Gorgonio would offer some skiing opportunities, but unless a different route could be found I feel that the added pleasures for the skier isn't worth the countless hiking and camping experiences robbed from our youth and everyone in general. Another thing, you cannot get a boy to hike to the top of a peak and then look around and see all the people who easily come up in a chair lift. He gets no sense of accomplishment from this sort of thing. Thank you. Mr. JOHNSON. Young man, how many people in the United States use the wilderness area? Mr. SOLBERG. We hiked in on Thursdays and I don't know if that is a real heavy day. Mr. JOHNSON. Do you have any idea? Mr. SOLBERG. I don't know the exact number, no; I would not know. Mr. JOHNSON. Do you have any idea of the percentage in comparison to the people who use the wilderness area for skiing? Mr. SOLBERG. In the summer? Mr. JOHNSON. Anytime. Mr. SOLBERG. I don't know. Mr. JOHNSON. I mean, the total use of the wilderness area, year round? Mr. SOLBERG. I am not familiar with the other wilderness areas. Mr. JOHNSON. It would be a very, very small percentage; would it not? Mr. SOLBERG. In this area, I am sure that is used more than some areas. It is higher elevation; kids don't gain as much out of hiking through the desert as they do through mountains. So it is used more as a wilderness area than a lot of other areas. Mr. JOHNSON. You take this area here, and I think you have the wrong concept, because a vast majority of the people never go in there. Some of the finest people we have in the world have never been into the wilderness area. Mr. SOLBERG. They are missing a great experience. go. In this area here you have about 12 to 14 million people. There are about 50,000 people who use the wilderness areas. That is a very small percentage of the total population, isn't it? Mr. SOLBERG. Some of them would like to drive through it maybe and see it. But I think it should remain something worth seeing, even if they just drive through and see it. Mr. JOHNSON. I think if you would study statistics, you will find out that the wilderness areas are not used by everyone. Mr. SOLBERG. No, I would think not. Mr. JOHNSON. I am sure that all people who do not use these wilderness areas are still good citizens. |