committee on natural resources will come to order the committee is meeting today for the consideration of four measures two of which are bills to designate additional wilderness in the state of oregon and west virginia in this regard there are several other wilderness bills that i anticipate that i had anticipated taking action on today in the event negotiations on them are concluded it is my intention to schedule them for consideration in the near future the committee is also today considering  bill sponsored by the ranking member don young to provide for a land conveyance in kaufman covert alaska and finally a measure sponsored by a colleague from idaho mike simpson to rename a servatius area and his state four the chair announces that he may postpone further proceedings today on any question ever proven any measure or matter or dr mehmet on which recorded vote or that as a naser order i ask and answer sent to staff the authorized to make necessary technical and necessary changes to all the bills reported today subject to the approval of the minority here no objection so ordered also ask the national center for any be ordered reported today with amendments it to be will be considered reported with a member to strike  and insert the text the bill with its perfect amendments adopted in committee is your objection hearing and so ordered the first consideration first item for consideration is h r three five one three the copper salmon  the copper salmon wilderness is a proposal that has been pretty well understood and defined for more than a decade it has a wide range of stakeholders supporting it including local county commissioners the environmental groups the timber industry hunting and fishing groups and others i think we have here a good consensus proposal it will finish something that i started in my first term in working with senator hatfield on wild and scenic river bill where we did not include some tributaries and portions of the elk river drainage in that original wild scenic river bill and this will complete that job this river sustains one of the healthiest salmon populations in the in the western united states particularly critical a time where many of our rivers are  designation these are tree plantations that have gone through an environmental review and been approved for thinning and the forest service intent is to thin those stands which means as they grow toward maturity in the wilderness they'll be more fire resistant and will replicate more the natural conditions rise of the tree plantations and the forest service further intent is to use the proceeds from those sales which will not be great but to use the proceeds from those sales in stewardship contracts to remove a number of culverts that will be within the wilderness on on now closed roads which could be potentially problematic so i think it be both beneficial for the forest and very beneficial for the rivers in the drainage is to put those and get those culverts out of there so i would i would recommend this bill wholeheartedly to the committee for its a said committee ranking member mr bishop thank you i'd like to make one quick statement about this on behalf of the full committee ranking member if i might it has come to our attention that there may be an unintended consequence to the world  included in this legislation and i just wanted to make sure the sponsored legislation is where of the concern concern has been raised in the culverts which currently allow fish passage under roadways might be removed or allowed to decompose if the roads are no longer maintained with the problem that salmon populations are facing in the lower forty eight states right now we don't want to see this legislation contribute to the problem as i mentioned i think this is an unintended consequences consequence but we should make sure that this concern is addressed elevation culverts and they don't provide passage to fish bearing streams there may be something somewhere i'm not aware of but be happy to check with the forest service and see how we might deal with that if it is a problem rule five i give notice of my intention to file additional dissenting views on the bill just considered and i ask unanimous consent that this notice be extended to all members of the committee and to apply the all bills being considered by the committee today without objection so ordered thank you mr chairman we are now ready for the second item for consideration which fifty one fifty one the wild man and galley act introduced by the jump from west virginia me and supported by the entire west virginia congressional delegation bill as part of the revision of the mining national forest plan completed in two thousand and six eighteen roadless areas were inventoried and evaluated for their wilderness potential as a result of this process of west virginia truly about the heart and soul of west virginia as west virginians we are intimately connected to our land our roots are planted deep in our midst the hollows in our majestic mountains we know that will we will be judged by future generations on our steward ship of this land that is west virginia and so i believe that it is paramount importance that we want to get and set aside some of god's handiwork in our force by preserving these federal lands in their  necessarily agree with the wilderness designation i hope that your people and you will realize in time that when you designate an area wilderness then you preclude the utilization of some management tools were which are needed to manage these areas  amendment takes care of that i want to compliment you because the act of wilderness a self clued in act that precludes the utilization that has to be done in these areas in fact it will probably hurt the areas if we don't manage it so i will support the legislation because it is your district and i strongly suggest that members on your side recognize that type of rule which is very important as your intellect to represent those people and they wish to have this and that should be your prerogative but i hope your amendment takes care of those problem which i'm deeply concerned with  the gem of i believe the general welfare and my men addresses those issues we have worked very closely with our state department of natural resources who did have some management issues with the original introduced legislation  issues have now been resolved and as a gentleman knows you can are allowed to hunt in wilderness areas and this legislation in no way precludes the ability to reclaim my time you're allowed to hunt if  you're sixteen seventeen twenty five thirty years old but people my age mr bishop probably soon are not allowed because you can't use no you cannot use mechanized vehicles and if there's a large area we say twenty seven thousand acres it precludes anybody else from utilizing it it's been my biggest argument all along that if we are to manage correctly take the total management especially while i can't be just part of the elite and i call the elite those that are youthful laig can do the  so just keep that in mind you know back to jim and i certainly understand those prohibitions to which you referred and in some cases we've been able to resolve those in this area because certainly it's not our commend the chairman as someone who knows some of this territory firsthand i want to commend him for preserving the wilderness character this is true these are truly special places and deserving of the kind of protection that you've built into into this legislation in the manager's amendment and command and thank the chairman for this the chairman certainly where the gentleman from new jersey's west virginia roots and appreciate his comments jim from utah do you wish recognition yes well obviously i am happy that you can have as much wilderness in west virginia as is humanly possible encourage you to have even more wilderness but i just was questioning whether in part of the drive by insult that went by and my precluded from hunting in your area because i'm too old or too handicapped any other members wish recognition if they do that you know their time to all right if not i do have them in a nature substitute which is in the members folders without objection members consider red and i reckon my selfe for five minutes explain that memet primarily this member makes technical and conforming changes to the propose wilderness boundaries requested by the forest service such as providing for one hundred fifty foot buffer between any wilderness boundary and a road or utility right of way the amendment at the request of representative capita also deletes the proposed mountain wilderness as a result of these changes the wilderness acreage figure for the six areas in the thirty seven thousand seven hundred seventy one acres the mammoth also makes some housekeeping changes over the course of many years of for service has acquired several parcels of land that largely were adjacent but not within the boundary of the mountain national forest mehmet would incorporate these so called purchased units into the boundary at your question the forest sepsis directs the force service to develop a plan to provide for enhanced non motorized recreation trail opportunities on lands not designated as well as any discussion on the governor  as amended without objection motion reconsider is laid on the table the next item for discussion is h r eight three one the kaufman cove administrative site conveyance act introduced by our colleague the ranking member mr young i ask  forest i don't expect to change that anytime soon but i think it's more than reasonable to give a twelve acres of surplus federal and located in the communities economic center mr chairman this bill provides a fair and commonsense solutions to a problem a tiny parcel of land is no use of force chairman i have a very short statement is appropriately named as the morning nelson he was a private individual who worked with the idaho power to resign your towers and power lines so eagles could not be executed i hope our save some money the to reconsider is laid on the table any further basis if not i do thank the members in the staff of the committee for their work and participation this markup and without objection the committee stands