82 



I do not believe that anybody has had a lot of success in control- 

 ling fire. We try our best to control it, but you never know. Fire 

 doesn't necessarily stop right on our boundaries. If it did, we would 

 appreciate that. But if there is a fire out there, it is going to affect 

 us. 



In addition to that, there is this statement about water rights, 

 and water rights will be OK for the State of California. There is 

 no mention of private property or special use permits in this bill. 

 We take exception to that. 



Finally, it is simply ecosystem management. The Chief of the 

 Forest Service mentions it. The Sierra Club just had it as their 

 cover story, 21 ecoregions, the largest ecoregion management. 



This bill proposes to take a small area of the Sierra Nevadas and 

 micromanage it. That is a mistake. Everyone that has spoken today 

 says, we need to manage it as an ecoregion, a large area. 



Ahd there are a lot of things that have been kind of back tracked 

 on this bill, a lot of suggested amendments, things like that. I real- 

 ly think that there is so much wrong with this bill that we need 

 to reconsider it, and maybe consider a different type of bill. 



The sequoias, I believe, are protected. They are not threatened. 

 We have time to reconsider on this, and I would strongly suggest 

 that. 



It is a little upsetting to us, when we work in a small camp, we 

 do not have large budgets. But what we do have is, we have a situ- 

 ation here where just the plane fare for my boss and I to come out 

 here and testify used 26 scholarships for inner city kids, who nor- 

 mally would be changed by this kind of an area. You lose that type 

 of an opportunity. We are talking "real" for us. 



We would like to sit here and debate what is good and bad for 

 the forest, and we would like to be a part of that in the future. But 

 at the same time, we would like to do it on a bill that is concise 

 and speaks directly to a lot of issues, and considers things like 

 recreation. Thank you. 



[The prepared statement of Mr. Lilley appears at the conclusion 

 of the hearing.] 



Mr. Brown. Thank you, Mr. Lilley. That was extremely good tes- 

 timony. For myself, as the author of the bill, I would be prepared 

 to accept a number of your recommendations, except for canceling 

 the bill, of course. [Laughter.] 



We will see if we can't improve it a little. 



Next, Mr. Schlitz. 



STATEMENT OF FRANK J. SCHLITZ, CONTRACTOR, TULARE 



COUNTY, CA 



Mr. Schlitz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and subcommittee mem- 

 bers, for the opportunity to appear before you today. 



I am Frank Schlitz, a contractor serving the southeastern part 

 of Tulare County, California. I have lived and worked in the Se- 

 quoia National Forest area for 45 years. It is my intention to some- 

 day retire in the Camp Nelson area which, by the way, is entirely 

 within the proposed preserve. 



I am a member and past president of the Upper Tule Association. 

 The Upper Tule Association represents nearly 500 property owners 

 in the Tule River drainage of the Sequoia National Forest. There 



