61 



quiring $5 million in security, and anything below that, they're not 

 willing to deal with. So small sawmills, rather than buying a bond 

 to cover performance on a timber sale, are having to put up cash 

 letters of credit from banks. And that alone is a deterrent to small 

 business because that limits your borrowing power. 



Cash deposits on timber sales are getting way out of hand. I 

 think I did a comparison on here between a sale in 1986 and one in 

 1993. They were of the same size. Cash deposits on the 1993 sale 

 were up something like $89,000 cash deposit. Small businesses can't 

 afford that. And there needs to be some mechanism or assistance 

 for us to handle those costs. 



Senator Pressler. This question is for Bill Honerkamp — but any 

 other witness may respond — on the issue of the wilderness areas, I 

 want to understand what the impact would be on tourism. Some 

 might say such designations would help tourism of a certain type. 

 Others would say otherwise. In preparing for this hearing, I read 

 an editorial in the Rapid City Journal. As I understood it, it said 

 that we should find a way that we can satisfy environmental con- 

 cerns and also use some of these lands for other things. That tends 

 to be where my thinking comes down. However, as I understand it, 

 use is severely limited in declared wilderness areas. How would 

 that affect tourism? 



Mr. Honerkamp. First of all, we have two wilderness areas in 

 western South Dakota, Sage Creek out in the Badlands and Black 

 Elk here in the National Forest. The concept of wilderness has 

 always seemed to me to be a very extreme form of management or 

 nonmanagement. And in terms of practical matters, a wilderness 

 product appeals to a very, very narrow spectrum of consumers. It's 

 a very, very specialized, superspecialized, opportunity. And while 

 we are pleased to be able to offer that opportunit}^ via the wilder- 

 ness areas we have, to be able to create more we do not think 

 would probably create more customers. In other words, we do not 

 feel more wilderness equals more customers. Indeed, it may equal 

 less customers. 



Again, there's something very ornery about it. We believe that 

 some of the areas that have been proposed for wilderness are 

 indeed very beautiful backcountry. And perhaps we could support 

 some roadless management or things like that into it. But the Fed- 

 eral wilderness designation is a very ironclad and very limiting 

 regulation to propose upon realists. 



Senator Pressler. Larry Nelson, you talked a little bit about how 

 the Ponderosa Pine is different than some other trees in terms of 

 its effect on grazing. Can you expand a bit more on that? 



Mr. Nelson. Well, my National Forest people tell me that up 

 here in the Black Hills, without timber management, Ponderosa 

 Pine becomes the dominant species and grows in real close, thick, 

 dog hair stands, chokes out the understory and thereby choking out 

 the available forage for livestock and wildlife just because it 

 doesn't leave any available space for them to grow and shuts out 

 sunlight, this type of thing. 



Senator Pressler. Now, in your judgment, what is the current 

 condition of the public lands that are included in the grazing per- 

 mits in western South Dakota? 



74-343 0-94-3 



