36 



Now that may seem abstract, but what it means is, we are going 

 to get out of the plantation forestry business. We are going to be 

 managing the forest, that part we are managing, and try to main- 

 tain very much of the diversity that exists in a natural forest — ^you 

 know, some big trees, a diverse canopy, and the kind of diversity 

 that you would find in a natural forest. 



When you move beyond what that means in this watershed or 

 this location — and, I might add, we have a lot of demonstration 

 projects, and we are beginning to try to fold in ecosystem thinking 

 in everything we do out there, but we do have some very good dem- 

 onstration projects. There is no answer, it is not a blueprint, and 

 it is not black and white. 



What we try to do at this level is state the policy, state the phi- 

 losophy, and how we are going to manage with a sensitivity to eco- 

 system values, but when it gets down to the end, putting it on the 

 ground, we have to depend on our interdisciplinary folks — ^you 

 know, the fisheries biologists, the wildlife biologists, the soil sci- 

 entists, the foresters, the landscape architects — working together, 

 saying this is what ecosystems management means when it gets 

 down to this watershed level. 



That is the other part about ecosystem management. You just 

 don't go in and look at the road or the timber sale, you look at how 

 that road or timber sale, or whatever the activity is, fits into the 

 bigger mosaic and pattern, because in the end we are trying to 

 maintain a diverse, healthy, productive ecosystem over an area. 

 You can't have everything on every acre, and so the bigger picture 

 is very important. 



That is changing the way we have historically viewed the forest 

 to a great degree, and it does mean something, because it means 

 our people on the ground making decisions, they are making some 

 different kinds of decisions so that this forest will look different 

 than it has in the past. You will not see these big, square clear- 

 cuts or plantation forestry. 



Mr. LaRocco. Some of that is reflected in your testimony, and 

 I think it is good news. Quite frankly, in the drafting of the wilder- 

 ness bill that I am going to introduce tomorrow we try not to be 

 as prescriptive as prior wilderness bills in Idaho that failed, by the 

 way, because they were overly prescriptive, and I think you should 

 be given the chance to develop these new techniques and imple- 

 ment them on the ground. 



In your testimony here when you talk about protecting wetlands, 

 restoring riparian zones, improving watershed conditions, restoring 

 fisheries, all of this stuff is done with the idea of forest health in 

 mind without simply saying we have got a dead stand of timber out 

 there and let's go out, and it is a salvage sale opportunity. 



I want to ask you a question on policy. I am not going to try and 

 set you up here; I will lay my cards on the table. Today there is 

 a headline in the Idaho Daily Statesman that says that the Boise 

 Forest supervisor wants to have a salvage sale in an area that is 

 proposed for wilderness under the forest plan in the Needles area, 

 and quite frankly, I am a little chagrined about this because I have 

 announced to anybody that cared — and I assume supervisors care — 

 that I am going to introduce a bill by the end of March. This is 



