To the Editor:
Re “The Looting of America’s Public Lands” (editorial, Dec. 10):
To the shockingly long list of assaults on public lands and the environment by President Trump and his administration, add the effort by Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, to repeal and replace the Clean Water Rule.
The rule protects small streams and wetlands, which contribute to the drinking water supply of one in three Americans.
In the past, efforts to undermine protection of the environment have been rejected by the American public. Exploitation of public lands in the late 19th century helped usher in the Progressive conservation era of Theodore Roosevelt.
Americans rejected the extremism of Interior Secretary James Watt and the E.P.A. administrator, Anne Gorsuch, in the Reagan administration. The Trump administration poses an even graver threat.
Once again, Americans must rise to defend our rivers, our cherished public lands and the environmental heritage we owe our children and grandchildren.
WM. ROBERT IRVIN, WASHINGTON
The writer is president and chief executive of American Rivers.
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