Parkland Financing

Re: “Park Agency Financing Threatens Investments,” Feb. 25.

Rich Sybert, a board member of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and a candidate hoping to represent Santa Monica Mountains communities in Congress, blames the Clinton Administration for the fact that the National Park Service has no funding for land purchases in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, accusing President Clinton of “holding the Santa Monica Mountains hostage to his political ambitions.”

The truth is, last year Clinton asked Congress to provide $3 million for land purchases in the Santa Monicas for this year, along with $1.3 million to compensate for the park’s acquisition money that was borrowed for firefighting purposes. To date, neither amount has been appropriated by the Republican-led Congress.

In fact, Republicans in the House of Representatives initially called for a five-year moratorium on all National Park Service Land purchases, but later relented and agreed to provide a relatively modest amount this year to take care of emergencies and hardship cases.

Unfortunately, that funding was contained in a bill that would have reversed the California Desert Protection Act, expanded logging in the Tongass National Forest, stopped the listing of new endangered species and imposed other environmentally damaging policies--a bill that Clinton rightly vetoed in December. Ever since, Republicans in Congress have refused to pass anew any funds for park purchases.

Funding for parkland acquisition is indeed being held hostage; it has been snared in the unpopular anti-environmental agenda that the Republicans in Congress are trying to foist on the American people.

ANTHONY C. BEILENSON

Beilenson (D-Woodland Hills) represents the 24th Congressional District.