Martin Litton

MARTIN Litton eased his bulky frame out of the cramped back seat of a Subaru sedan and walked across the road. "Let's get a look at the mess they've made here," he said, his blue eyes darting to fresh tree stumps and logging trails gouged into the pale, dusty earth of the southern Sierra. He climbed slowly up an embankment and started snapping photographs. Litton is two months short of 90, hard of hearing and equipped with two artificial knees.

MARTIN Litton eased his bulky frame out of the cramped back seat of a Subaru sedan and walked across the road. "Let's get a look at the mess they've made here," he said, his blue eyes darting to fresh tree stumps and logging trails gouged into the pale, dusty earth of the southern Sierra. He climbed slowly up an embankment and started snapping photographs. Litton is two months short of 90, hard of hearing and equipped with two artificial knees.

Water running over rocks, Normal people don't come here --Martin Litton On the Grand Canyon * No one is likely to insult Martin Litton by calling him normal, average, conventional, reasonable. Not in describing his life, not when considering his ideas.

David Brower, an oracle for wilderness and the most indomitable environmental warrior of 20th century America, has died. He was 88. Brower, who died of bladder cancer Sunday at his home in Berkeley, was a combative, prickly, inspirational and visionary figure who led the transformation of an easygoing culture of nature lovers into a hardened army of nature defenders. Among his achievements, Brower spearheaded the fight to save the Grand Canyon from dams. He also organized successful opposition to dams that would have flooded Dinosaur National Monument--although paying a price he would always regret: acquiescing to Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, above the Grand Canyon.

David Brower, an oracle for wilderness and the most indomitable environmental warrior of 20th century America, has died. He was 88. Brower, who died of bladder cancer Sunday at his home in Berkeley, was a combative, prickly, inspirational and visionary figure who led the transformation of an easygoing culture of nature lovers into a hardened army of nature defenders. Among his achievements, Brower spearheaded the fight to save the Grand Canyon from dams. He also organized successful opposition to dams that would have flooded Dinosaur National Monument--although paying a price he would always regret: acquiescing to Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River, above the Grand Canyon.

Your most welcome account of the life work of Martin Litton ("The Old Man and the River," May 11) fittingly highlighted one important aspect of the life of this remarkable man. Your staff writer deserves special commendation for following Litton to places to which the average person would never venture. Your story, however, might well have made mention of Litton's piloting of his own plane, taking aerial photographs of the devastation of our nation's forest resources. Some of Litton's photographs reveal illegal harvesting of timber by the logging industry; others simply reveal the shortsighted and ill-advised harvesting policies of the U.S. Forest Service.

Re "A matter of grove concern," Column One, Dec. 21 Thank you for the story about Martin Litton's crusade to protect our sequoias. I've long admired him, and if I ever get to fulfill my dream of floating down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, it will be his way (nonmotorized, in dories) or no way! The U.S. Forest Service profits from logging and therefore can never be trusted to do what's right for a forest. True, unbiased scientific research should be the basis for all forest management decisions.

The whole thrust of "The Thrill That Can Kill" seems to be to sensationalize and mislead. Tales of mishaps are unduly emphasized, and repeated. The very positive (and safe) side of river floating is slighted. Charlie Walbridge is quoted: "If someone can't accept risks, he'd be better off going to Disneyland." You might as well say, "He'd be better off not getting out of bed in the morning." Does Disneyland claim to be risk-free? You might check out its liability insurance premiums.

Even narrator-host James Taylor playing his drippingly sincere songs by the banks of the Colorado doesn't stop us from getting into the flow of TBS' "Colorado River Adventure," which is really eight parts river and one part adventure. Taylor takes his teen-age son, Ben, and joins 13 others for a three-week ride in handmade dories down the Colorado, through the Grand Canyon and ending at the headwaters of Lake Mead.

The Pentagon is considering possible criminal prosecution against eight, or possibly nine, of the nation's biggest defense firms for allegedly trafficking in classified Defense Department documents, a Pentagon official said today. John Donnelly, director of the Pentagon's Defense Investigative Service, said that eight firms were involved in "systemic, company-approved" efforts to obtain classified information to help compete for lucrative defense contracts.

Your most welcome account of the life work of Martin Litton ("The Old Man and the River," May 11) fittingly highlighted one important aspect of the life of this remarkable man. Your staff writer deserves special commendation for following Litton to places to which the average person would never venture. Your story, however, might well have made mention of Litton's piloting of his own plane, taking aerial photographs of the devastation of our nation's forest resources. Some of Litton's photographs reveal illegal harvesting of timber by the logging industry; others simply reveal the shortsighted and ill-advised harvesting policies of the U.S. Forest Service.

Water running over rocks, Normal people don't come here --Martin Litton On the Grand Canyon * No one is likely to insult Martin Litton by calling him normal, average, conventional, reasonable. Not in describing his life, not when considering his ideas.

The California Coastal Commission handed a tentative victory to Soka University on Thursday, apparently signaling an end to the school's eight-year battle to expand its campus in an oak-filled valley in the Santa Monica Mountains. By a unanimous vote that belied the day's polemics, the commission approved the first of two measures Soka needs to expand its enrollment from 350 to 800 students per day. A vote on the second issue was postponed until March.