Gov. Davis Defends Our State’s Parks

No matter what anyone thinks of the way Gov. Gray Davis is handling the state budget -- after all, look at the national Republican budget deficit -- my hat is off to him for bucking the federal Interior Department and demanding that any company that mines in our parks must clean up the mess (“Davis Signs Law to Deter Gold Mining at Site Sacred to Indians,” April 8). The very idea that Adam Harper, manager of the California Mining Assn., said that having to restore the massive holes left by open-pit projects would make gold mining too expensive is shocking!

Why should a tiny group of investors profit from paying a small fee to the federal government so that they can destroy what is now pristine wilderness (which up until President Bush and Interior Secretary Gale Norton came along was protected for future generations) and not expect to pay to clean up their destruction? Why should they have a right to do that any more than any other citizen of the U.S.? I sincerely hope that Davis continues to protect our state from the feds, especially if they give Norton the unprecedented, unilateral authority to do what she wants under the auspices of the homeland security energy bill slated to pass soon.

Patricia Dowd

Oxnard