Interior Secretary Hodel’s Plan to Dismantle O’Shaughnessy Dam

This letter should be titled “Hodel’s Folly” for that is what it is about. I make reference to The Times article “Hodel, (San Francisco Mayor Dianne) Feinstein Square Off Over Plan to Dismantle Dam,” (Part I, Oct. 14).

Tearing down a multibillion-dollar dam (O’Shaughnessy Dam) and power plant and building another multibillion-dollar one elsewhere to replace San Francisco’s water and power source just to reclaim one-square mile of valley park land is not my idea of sound government policy.

If this is not some huge publicity stunt on Interior Secretary Donald P. Hodel’s part, then surely our government representatives have lost their good common sense.

In the area where I live, Lake Arrowhead, we are losing nearly 1,000 acres of scenic forest lands of the San Bernardino National Forest to private ownership because the Forest Service does not have a budget allocation large enough to maintain and manage these beautiful forests. These lands are being liquidated through a forestry exchange policy whereby other more remote and “easier to maintain” lands are acquired by the Forest Service in the exchange, and our lands go to private development.

If the Forest Service were allocated some of “Hodel’s billions of dollars” he expects to use for these dam projects, maybe congested Southern California would not have to lose its forests. I know many environmentalists and nature lovers would like to have Hetch Hetchy Valley back, but let’s be practical and at least let the dam and power plant wear out first. In the meantime, let’s save our forests in Southern California.

LARRY BROWN

Executive Vice President

Save Our Forest Assn.

Lake Arrowhead