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Senator Risch, I am a resident and voter in Bonner County and the establishment of the Scotchman Peaks wilderness area is important to me. Our national forest and public lands are supposed to be for multiple use, and wilderness is a use.

Snowmobilers and ATV enthusiasts already have access to millions of acres. The 13,900 acres of the Idaho portion of the proposed wilderness is less than 1 percent of the public land in the Idaho Panhandle. This land is generally too steep and rugged for timber and commercial development.

A wilderness area would help protect the watershed that flows into the Clark Fork river and Lake Pend Oreille. It would provide a reservoir for both plant and animal biodiversity. The area is one of the last strongholds of the mountain goat. It would provide a control area to measure the effects of future development on our climate. Most importantly, we have an obligation to future generations to leave a portion of the Earth untouched and wild so they can experience the natural world. The time to save the wilderness is now, while we still have it. Once it is gone, it will be gone forever.

Dave Heep

Ponderay