Park Status for East Mojave

In answer to “Clinton Should Reject Sabotage of Desert Act” (editorial, Sept. 22), expressing a one-sided view of Congress’ wish to continue to have the Bureau of Land Management manage the proposed East Mojave National Park:

The act that resulted in the East Mojave National Preserve was written behind closed doors by a small, elitist group and with little, if any, input from an informed public--and it passed by only one vote, from an urban Eastern senator. Unfortunately, under the National Park Service this beautiful harsh desert land will be all but closed to our older senior citizens and our handicapped citizens. This area has been protected by the new BLM, according to an excellent desert plan that was developed over a four-year period with ample public input.

It is ludicrous to take needed funds from Sequoia and Yosemite just to satisfy a very small group of selfish elitists who call themselves environmentalists.

BILL CLAYPOOL

Needles

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* Last October, Congress passed and the President signed into law a bill creating the East Mojave National Preserve. In spite of the fact that this is now a law of the land, Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Redlands) chooses to ignore the law by gutting the bill of virtually all funding (“Slash in Funding Imperils Park Status for East Mojave,” Sept. 21). Apparently Lewis views himself as someone who may simply ignore and bypass laws he doesn’t like.

What if we all did that? Isn’t that a definition of anarchy?

THOMAS R. TEFFT

Idyllwild

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* The Times displayed exquisite timing in running its editorial while the President and vice president were in Southern California. A full-scale assault on America’s public lands by the 104th Congress is in full stride. Certainly, the Interior appropriations bill, replete with a litany of environmental wrecking balls, is one of the weapons being used in this assault. This bill is a monument to blind ideology and searing hypocrisy.

On the singular basis of closing America’s newest national park--the Mojave Preserve--the bill must be vetoed. But the reasons for a veto don’t stop there. Other provisions in the bill will dearly cost our nation’s public lands and the American taxpayer for years to come. The drafters of the bill have wholly succeeded in replacing science-based public land management with an approach based purely on a deep-seated, vindictive hostility to the American landscape.

By week’s end, the President had heard this message loud and clear. Before leaving California, the White House had issued a statement announcing that the President will veto the Interior appropriations bill if it arrives on his desk in its current form of closing the Mojave National Preserve, as well as with a few other onerous provisions. Now it is up to Californians who care about the desert to call the White House to thank the President for this promised veto--a veto that must stick!

JAY THOMAS WATSON

Regional Director

Wilderness Society

San Francisco