Dear HCN, The article on the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act (HCN, 3/3/03: The Wild Card) gave readers the impression that, until recently, conservationists always advocated multi-area wilderness legislative packages, that the supposed slowdown in wilderness designation is something new, and that compromises of the Wilderness Act have been routine (and desirable) since 1964. […]
Gary Macfarlane
Posted inJune 22, 1998: Western water: Why it's dirty and in short supply
Wolves deserve protection
Dear HCN, Pat Tucker and Bruce Weide’s article on wolves contains many errors (HCN, 4/13/98). Wolves were not “occasional loners’ in central Idaho’s wilds, prior to the recent release, as their article asserts. There is ample evidence that wolves did inhabit the Greater Salmon-Selway Ecosystem, dating back to the first confirmed sightings from the late […]
Posted inMarch 18, 1996: What does the West need to know?
From the front lines of Idaho
Dear HCN: Mindy Wiebush claims to have heard negative things about activists protecting Cove/Mallard forests and Idaho and denigrates those people (HCN, 2/19/96). Yet she labels actions from corporate vigilantes as merely “hotheaded.” While I don’t know anything about what she is rumored to have heard, this is what I know for sure: All activists […]
Posted inJune 27, 1994: Home, home on the range ... where neo-Nazis and skinheads roam
Nothing yet beats leaving things alone
Dear HCN, As a not-so-recent graduate of Utah State University’s College of Natural Resources, I’ve known and respected Fred Wagner for years. His June 13 op ed on Yellowstone elk should be read by every environmentalist. However, a few points should be addressed. The Yellowstone Northern Range situation is not analogous to areas where livestock […]