No. 3, wilderness designation in the Black Hills, then, is really a 

 management option to accept stand replacing catastrophe as the 

 regulating force in these areas. 



No. 4, this management option jeopardizes both public and pri- 

 vate lands in the vicinity of the wilderness areas since obviously 

 these agents of massive destruction do not respect artificial bound- 

 aries. This management option also guarantees the areas will not 

 forever remain in their present condition to be passed from genera- 

 tion to generation as some seem to expect. 



No. 5, so far as a 10-year forest plan is concerned, I agree with 

 our late Governor Mickelson and our present Governor Miller. Vir- 

 tually every acre of the Black Hills National Forest needs some 

 form of management to keep it in a vigorous, healthy, aesthetically 

 pleasing, and productive condition. The forest plan should recog- 

 nize this, and it should be reflected in the size of the timber pro- 

 gram. 



Thank you very much. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Davis follows:] 



Prepared Statement of Frank Davis 



Mr. Chairman and Members of the Committee, I am Frank Davis, State forester 

 of South Dakota today representing Governor Miller who regrets a previous commit- 

 ment prevents his attendance. I am pleased to appear before you today to discuss 

 multiple use management in the Black Hills, the proposed Black Hills National 

 Forest 10-year plan and the wilderness plan put forth by the Black Hills Group, 

 Sierra Club. 



"Throughout the Hills the number of trees which bear the marks of the thunder- 

 bolt is very remarkable, and the strongest proof of the violence and frequent recur- 

 rence of these storms. The woods are frequently set on fire and vast damage done. 

 There are many broad belts of country covered with the tall straight trunks of what 

 was only a short time before a splendid forest of trees, now charred, dead, and use- 

 less." 



"The very large mass of these pine forests, dark and rich and beautiful as they 

 are, are yet composed of trees the very large majority of which are less than 8 

 inches in diameter. There is scarcely to be found in the Black Hills a forest of old 

 trees." 



The above lines were taken from the book written by Colonel Dodge following his 

 3-month visit to the Hills in the summer of 1875 prior to any settlement save for a 

 few miners exploiting the gold discovered by General Custer's expedition in 1874. 

 His descriptions, then, are of the natural condition of the Black Hills. He tells us 

 how they looked then and how they would look today had they been left to the natu- 

 ral forces of fire, windstorm and bark beetles. 



Reinforcing Dodge's description are a large number of photographs taken by the 

 Custer expedition in 1874. These pictures show a much more open forest than the 

 one we see today following nearly a century of fire suppression and other manage- 

 ment activities. 



My purpose in bringing up this ancient history is to illustrate that today we are 

 dealing with a forest in an unnatural condition— a forest no longer being regulated 

 by natural forces. A forest which must now be managed by the overt acts of man if 

 it is to remain beautiful, healthy and productive because we cannot allow the free 

 reign of its principle natural regulator— fire. The new forest plan must recognize 

 this fact. 



I am today representing Governor Miller, and he is, in effect, representing our 

 late Governor George S. Mickelson who only a month before his tragic and untimely 

 death, spoke to a group of 250 public land users here in Rapid City. Because I know 

 Governor Miller shares the philosophy and principles expressed by Governor Mick- 

 elson that day, I now want to share with you some excerpts from that speech. 



"Number one on my list of concerns is continued support on a local, State, and 

 federal level for multiple use management of our National Forest lands. As I see it, 

 we also need to simplify the appeals process governing timber sales in the Black 

 Hills National Forest. Reform of a cumbersome appeals process means we can make 

 good, honest decisions about the future of our forest resources. 



