80 



of different groups who have both private property in-holdings, as 

 well as special use permits within the affected area. 



We heard a lot today, and it has been educational for me. I have 

 enjoyed it. But one of the terms that keeps coming up is a response 

 to recreation and how this will be affected in areas of recreation. 



That is who I am speaking for, not just those inside the forest 

 who have some type of holding in the forest, but also in relation 

 to the International Mountain Biking Association and four wheel 

 drive clubs. A lot of different recreational groups that use the Se- 

 quoia National Forest have been in contact with me when they 

 heard I was coming back, and said, "Could you please keep us in 

 mind as well?" So I speak on behalf of a lot of recreationalists. 



The comments today have been that there is anywhere from 6 to 

 10 times as much impact on the forest from recreationalists as tim- 

 ber, so hopefully, our feelings have some weight. 



What happens with the Sequoia National Forest, as it was men- 

 tioned earlier, there are so many more users of the forest than 

 there are the park. In fact, in Yosemite, you have less than — if you 

 take Yosemite National Park and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National 

 Park and you combine them, you have more visitors to Sequoia Na- 

 tional Forest than you do those two parks, combined. That's 8.75 

 million visitors. Those are recreationalists who use the park. 



If you take an area like Yosemite, we have problems with Yosem- 

 ite. And, hopefully, you will be addressing that in the future. Be- 

 cause Yosemite has a narrow valley, and you are packing in mil- 

 lions, about 4 million people, into that narrow valley every year. It 

 is destroying that valley. And you, I understand, will be addressing 

 that. 



In this situation, we have 8.75 million. Now, that would sound 

 a little scary at first, except that the Forest Service practices what 

 is called dispersed recreation, where they allow you to get out into 

 the forest in a lot of different directions. And because of that, you 

 can have 8.75 million. 



I do it all the time. I can get out there, and the majority of the 

 time, I will never see another soul. Yet, there is 8.75 million, over 

 a year's time, because of dispersed recreation. 



To clarify what that means, there are a lot of fire roads that you 

 can take. And those fire roads are logging roads, roads that have 

 been put in. That is what dispersed recreation is. It allows those 

 people to disperse over a large area. And I enjoy that, and a lot 

 of the people that I am speaking on behalf of enjoy that. 



In addition to that, we have a situation where Congressman 

 Ravenel made a statement about his son, William, being handi- 

 capped. That is exactly what I would like to address. It is those 

 t3q)e of statements that we speak on behalf of 



My wife has congenital hip dysplasia. Her leg is a little higher 

 on her hip than it is supposed to be. She can walk fine, but she 

 can not walk long distances. 



I, on the other hand, can get around. In fact, just this last sum- 

 mer, I crossed the Sierras in a day. I have a great time out there, 

 both with parks, wilderness areas, and forests. I love it all. 



My wife does not get to see that, unless she gets a chance to go 

 back on one of these logging roads, and she can see the back coun- 

 try. I can put her on the back of my motorcycle and go back there. 



