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"Representative Bruce F. Vento on Wilderness"
IMPLEMENTATION OF WILDERNESS ACT OVERSIGHT HEARING

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EXPLORING THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE 1964 WILDERNESS ACT BY THE FOREST SERVICE, THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, AND THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE APRIL 15, 1997--WASHINGTON, DC

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STATEMENT OF HON. BRUCE F. VENTO, A U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM MINNESOTA

  Mr. VENTO. I just wanted to acknowledge, I wasn't aware that my colleague from Minnesota was going to be here to testify this morning. I wanted to welcome him. I was surprised to see him when I walked in. I would have been here in time to hear your entire statement, Senator, had I known.

  But I would just like to point out, this hearing is one I have an intense interest in and helped write the 1978 law; and indeed, as the Senator knows, while there may only be 18 lakes, it is over 20 percent of the water surface. In fact, 25 percent that is open to motorized use, and while certainly the character of those that are able to use the portages has changed in terms of size of the boats, maybe, that can move across it, all the permits for moving boats are going, so there are boats going across that portage.

  And I would further point out, the 1978 law has been successful in terms of the fact visitor days have increased from something like 1 million visitor days a year in the Boundary Waters to something like 1.6 million. It is the most extensively used wilderness in the eastern United States and obviously brings up all types of issues in terms of motorized use and how we manage the wilderness. In fact, most wildernesses do not have a permit system; we put that in place because we understood this important resource could be damaged.

  I hope meditation works. I hope I can work with the Senator on trying to resolve some of the outstanding differences, but I can assure him we appreciate and respect his points of view, although I think there are different points of view within our State, which obviously are strongly allied against some of the proposed changes that were made.

  So hopefully we can resolve it. I think mediation has helped. It hasn't resolved it, but it has helped; and I thank the Senator for his presence and the Chairman for the opportunity to speak for 2 minutes.

  Mr. HANSEN. Thank you. We appreciate the gentleman's comment, and we move on to the purpose of this hearing.

  We have Bobby Unser with us, a professional race car driver from New Mexico; Ted Nugent, founder of Ted Nugent United Sportsmen of America, from Michigan; and we are honored to have former Senator Malcolm Wallop, Chairman of the Frontiers of Freedom Institute from Arlington, Virginia; and Kathy Stupak-Thrall, from Crooked Lake North Shore Association. We are grateful to all of you for being here.