Date: 1983-03-21
Speaker: ROBERT F. SMITH (republican)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. never in my wildest dreams of becoming a Congressman would I have imagined that I would be forced to the floor of the House of Representatives after 3 months to help save 6.000 Oregon jobs. It would never have occurred to me that you would welcome me to town with a jobs bill which I voted for to create 2.000 positions in Oregon and immediately send 6.000 people to compete for those 2.000 Jobs. . Well. frankly. that is not the kind of a welcome that I expected. I rise today in direct opposition to H.R. 1149. This bill would carve 1.2 million acres of new wilderness out of the Oregon countryside. 70 percent of which is in my own Second Congressional District. Well. I am not here alone to oppose this bill. I come to you with the support of Oregons Gov. Victor Atlyeh and the mayor of Oregons largest city of Portland. My opposition is shared by all six State senators in this congressional district. as well as 10 out of 12 House Members in Oregon from the Second Congressional District. And these people by the way are Democrats and Republicans and this is not a partisan issue in Oregon. Also by a March 4 statevide survey. it showed 2 out of 3 Oregonians statewide were opposed to more wilderness designation. In a constituenc survey within my own district. recently conducted. opposition to wilderness in my own district ran more than 70 percent and it was opposition from recreationists. from miners. from snowmobilers. from labor unions. and from the timber industry: March 21. 1983 Let me. explain. first that this bill jc calls for an additional wilderness. to il put It In perspective. one and a half r times larger than the entire State of &~ Rhode Island. It Is roughly the same I square mileage of the State of Dela- 1( ware. or 28 times the size of the Dis- u trict of Columbia. If approved the combined size of all f wilderness areas in Oregon would be s equal to half of the size of the State of New Jersey. o Today the Federal Government. in n Oregon owns 52 percent of the larnd. v Of that. 1.2 million acres are already p designated for wilderness. Now many d of you may not be able to distinguish f differences between wilderness and t other Federal lands. bitu there are many. many important distinctions. a Let me just quote from the Wilderness r Act itself. There should be no commercial enterprise and no permanent road. there should be no temporary road. no use of motor vehicles. motorized equipment or motor boats. no landing of aircraft. no other form of mechanical transportation and no structure of installation within any. such area. But wilderness designation presents unique problems even for its own protection. Fires. for instance. occur also in unspoiled nature. In national forests and parks. fire roads are already cut to allow firefighters quick access to the problem areas. Within the wilderness areas. roads are not allowed. not even for fire roads. If fire starts. as it did in nearby Idaho just a few years ago. precious thousands of acres will burn before we can reach it or if we can reach it at all. As a matter of fact. Idaho lost 75.000 acres just a few years ago to fire in a wilderness area because there was just no way they could fight the fire. My colleagues. It make absolutely no. difference whether the unspoiled wilderness is devastated at the hand of man or by an act of God. It remains lost. Well no one in this Chamber today. I submit. has an absolute answer of how many jobs this bill will cost Oregon. Its sponsors tell you that it creates jobs. but that is because they have included in this package the release of 2 million acres that were never In jeopardy of. loss in the very first place. They have chosen to hold 2 million acres of potentially productive forest land as hostage while they dicker for 1.2 million acres of new wilderness. I call that Russian roulette. The problem is in Russian roulette there is an empty chamber. In this Russian roulette both chambers have a bullet to the head of Oregonians. One to release 2 million acres of land and the other with a bullet to set aside 1.2 million acres in wilderness and both of those are bullets to the very life of Oregonians and to the economic wellbeing of Oregon. I can tell my colleagues that estimates run between 6.000 and 8.000