Owens Valley Solution
Re “How Blue Was My Valley,” Opinion, Aug. 1: D.J. Waldie sets up a straw man and then destroys it. He postulates a conservancy for the Owens Valley and then attacks all state conservancies. The only person mentioning a conservancy for the Owens Valley was L.A. Mayor James Hahn, and he then withdrew the idea.
What environmentalists and a growing number of citizens want is a conservation easement on the development rights on the lands in the Eastern Sierra owned by the city of Los Angeles. This would protect the working landscape of ranching, recreation and open space in perpetuity without affecting the water rights or land management of the Department of Water and Power.
Elden Hughes
Chair, Sierra Club
Calif./Nev. Desert Committee
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