This issue’s cover story, by Associate Editor Tay Wiles, untangles the many threads behind the Bundys’ rebellion, from their faith to more radical Western strains of anti-government ideology. The story also describes how the Department of Justice and Bureau of Land Management bungled their own legal case against the family. Also in this issue, the Fish and Wildlife Service revisits rare species protections, the Interior Department deals with a larger-than-expected budget and a daughter writes an ode to her father and his acequia.

Credit: Andrew Cullen Credit: Andrew Cullen

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Fish farms need decent regulation

The possibility of commercial utilization is not an off-ramp for regulations restricting the importation of non-native species. There are many examples of this, including fishes that may be suitable for aquaculture, and animals that can be, or are, domesticated in other parts of the world. Your short article “Latest: Washington state bans fish farms” (HCN,…

by Douglas DeHart

Human safety first

Regarding the King Cove road (“Alaska wilds lose out,” HCN, 3/19/18): People have died in the King Cove, Alaska, community because the weather precluded air access, and they could not do anything but wait. Unless you live in a remote location like this, you don’t have, in my opinion, standing to protest these folks getting…

by Charles Nash

Ignoring public voices

Jonathan Thompson points out an issue common to discussions concerning public-land management in the West (“Local hands on public lands,” HCN, 3/19/18). Some locals and sometimes large companies, including foreign business interests, have a “vested financial interest” in public-land management decisions because they have grazing leases, oil and gas leases, mining or timbering interests, outfitting…

by Robert Luce

A drilling injustice

Mining damage isn’t the only concern for Bears Ears National Monument (“Local hands on public lands,” HCN, 3/19/18); it’s also about the tribes whose stories live there. Utah’s public lands are now a national sensation, but the way Bears Ears is being lumped into this larger attack on public lands doesn’t do the place justice.…

by Susana Reyes

An industrialized Chaco

Thank you for focusing on the Chaco Canyon area and the rapid pollution and industrialization of this internationally important area (“Drilling Chaco,” HCN, 3/5/18). I have watched this area closely for decades and have seen the incredible beauty of the area trashed by boom-and-bust oil development that scars the land permanently and pollutes the water…

by Tom Ribe

Beyond buzzwords

Spring has brought a topsy-turvy spell of weather to our home in Paonia, Colorado. At the beginning of the week, it was in the 70s, and we were working on our tans, but the following days brought hail, snow and ice that threatened the valley’s budding fruit trees. The erratic weather comes against the backdrop…

by Carl Segerstrom