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Senator Pressler. Thank you. 



John Percevich, owner and operator of Pactola Pines Marina. 



STATEMENT OF JOHN PERCEVICH, OWNER AND OPERATOR, 

 PACTOLA PINES MARINA, RAPID CITY, SD 



Mr. Percevich. I'd like to thank you for this opportunity to testi- 

 fy at this hearing. 



I'd also like to reinforce a couple of things I've heard through my 

 experience. Mr. Honerkamp had stated that the tourist would not 

 be drawn here by wilderness areas. I speak to thousands of tourists 

 every year. And one thing they come to the Black Hills for and the 

 one thing they say when they leave is, "We'll come back because 

 we can get out in the Black Hills." I have to disagree with Mr. Bra- 

 demeyer. I don't believe that the tourist will come back if half the 

 Black Hills are in wilderness areas. They won't come here. 



When we speak about tourism in South Dakota, we're talking 

 about hiking trails. We're talking about backpacking, things of this 

 sort, but also winter sports such as cross-country skiing, hundreds 

 of miles of snowmobile trails, and many, many other things. So I'd 

 just like to reinforce that before I give you my testimony. 



I've been a businessman in South Dakota for over 30 years. My 

 background has been in education, I guess, as a teacher before I 

 went into business. I was born and raised here. My grandfathers on 

 both sides were settlers in the Black Hills. Like Tom, I've seen 

 many, many changes in the Black Hills. From proper timber man- 

 agement, I have seen things get better. 



I've seen it so bad during deer season that you had to hunt for a 

 track. Now you don't have to do that. We didn't have any Elk in 

 the Black Hills prior to 1980, I believe. We had them in the eastern 

 Black Hills, but we didn't have any right here in the Black Hills. 

 So I think a healthy forest also promotes healthy game conserva- 

 tion. Since we have started managing the forest, I think we've seen 

 that here in the Black Hills. 



You know, I was raised under the old-fashioned belief that God 

 put things on this earth for man to use, not to abuse. And I don't 

 think the forests in the Black Hills have been abused. I would take 

 exception with the extreme environmentalists that say they have. I 

 would like to have them take me to an area that they think has 

 been that abused through proper forest management. 



Angle has said, if you do not manage the forest, mother nature's 

 going to go it. And we've all seen examples of this. I can't imagine 

 any group, whether extreme environmentalists or not, willing to 

 say, let's make this a wilderness area. Let it burn instead of man 

 using it. It does not make good sense. I hope the people in Wash- 

 ington can also see that. 



The one thing I wish to address here that nobody has addressed 

 is water conservation. Water is our most important natural re- 

 source. I'm prejudiced. I depend on water at Pactola. I have fought 

 droughts for 6 years. I've seen many businesses in Rapid City and 

 outside of Rapid City go bankrupt during those drought periods. 



Recreation is a big business. Just in Rapid City or western South 

 Dakota and eastern Wyoming, during the drought season, we took 

 a survey and the recreation-related businesses is a 30 million dollar 



