New Monuments

Re “Clinton Creates 3 National Monuments,” Jan. 12: How excited I was to read of the protections President Clinton brought to lands north of the Grand Canyon, the Agua Fria and the coastal islands and reefs along California’s shores. The “land grab,” as described by some in Arizona and Utah, is really an act to protect lands from destruction by the politicians who willingly hand over our public lands to the real “land grabbers”--the developers who have one purpose in mind: to trash pristine natural land into real estate developments for their own personal gain. Ask any Native American tribe just how that has worked.

And isn’t it interesting that [Republican Presidents] Nixon, Reagan and Bush are the only presidents who have not made such moves to protect our nation’s lands from wholesale destruction since 1906.

If the government officials of Utah and Arizona believe they were going to protect these regions anyway, why are they so upset that the federal government is doing so?

Way to go, Bill!

DAVE OHMAN

Irvine

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I couldn’t help but note the irony of the environmentalists’ enthusiasm for the creation of a new national monument in Arizona and the photograph of the president flying over the area in Marine Corps One, the chief executive’s personal helicopter. How did this aircraft get from Washington to Arizona? The expense of the president’s travel is rarely reviewed in the press, yet we obviously waste tremendous sums without a second thought.

KEVIN PARK

Agoura Hills