Feinstein’s Desert Bill

I am a curator in the Natural History Museum and have done research in the Mojave Desert for four decades, on and off, as well as occasionally leading small tours there. Today it is largely a pristine area still where there are no towns, especially the eastern Mojave. The Feinstein desert bill would change that: National parks do not exist without extensive development (try Death Valley during Death Valley Days). The Bureau of Land Management, despite Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s statement (letter, March 2), does an excellent job with the area considering its limited funding.

The enormous cost of transferring the area to the National Park Service could be avoided by giving the BLM more funding. The development would be thus put off and the desert itself would benefit. I think that Feinstein is getting poor advice. She should drive on Interstate 40 from Ludlow to Needles and then tell her constituents what she has seen that is mismanaged or in imminent danger of despoliation.

EDWARD C. WILSON

Los Angeles