VIEWPOINT / LETTERS : There Seems to Be Big Hole in This Plan

Regarding the Desert Protection Act and your article “Off The Beaten Path” (Dec. 28):

Let me get this straight, the hunter who walked in the desert and left only footprints and the off-roader who drove its dirt roads and left only tire tracks were deemed too destructive, but a mining company is going to blow up 505 acres--oh no wait, my mistake, it’s 19,000 acres--of our land, cyanide it for gold, then dig a 47-acre hole in a dry lake to get clay to line their cyanide pits, then after six years, take their profits and walk away, leaving the citizens of this state with a couple of very big holes and nasty cyanide pits? It would appear that the Desert Protection Act was more of a political victory for Diane Feinstein than an ecological victory for the desert.

MICHAEL RUSSO

Encinitas