At least some of the hurdles faced by women in the fire service are physiological (“Trial by Fire,” HCN, 5/30/16). The larger muscle fibers of men typically provide double the strength in the upper body and about 50 percent more in the lower body. In wildfire, the gatekeeper is the “arduous pack test,” which requires […]
John Walker
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
Hook-and-bullet journalism
The scientific bankruptcy of hook-and-bullet journalism by “outdoor” writers was on display in Craig Medred’s essay, “How my thoughts on wolves have changed” (HCN, 2/21/11). In his defense of the lethal manipulation of wolf populations, Medred uses the word “artificial” only once: to describe an “artificially high” wolf population resulting from “recent high salmon runs.” […]
Posted inWotr
What I learned as a self-appointed immigration agent
Like millions of others, he was going to overstay his visa and remain in the country illegally. Months earlier, my sister had returned to Arizona from her studies in Colombia with a boyfriend in tow. Though our parents were very conservative, she was their only daughter, and they agreed to sponsor his entry into the […]
Posted inAugust 16, 2004: Journey of Rediscovery
Objectivity is a moving target
Don’t lose any sleep over charges that HCN lacks objectivity. Middle-of-the-road pragmatists did not coax us out of the caves, launch the industrial revolution, or give birth to the idea that nature is more than a supporting cast of extras. All that and more, the good and the bad, was the work of advocates — […]
Posted inJuly 19, 2004: They're Here: Global Warming's Unlikely Harbingers
Just the facts, please
As a newspaper publisher in the Western U.S. for 20 years, I make it a point not to cancel subscriptions out of anger. But, while I may yet be enlightened to a different perspective, I’ve found HCN, to which I subscribed in February, to be much more about ideology than news. Because it was too […]
Posted inFebruary 18, 2002: Here lies the Rio Grande
Band-aid environmentalism
Dear HCN, Once a talented surgical team ready to save the world, the environmental movement has devolved into a school nurse dispensing sterile advice and used band-aids. Warning that “time is short,” editor Paul Larmer’s plea for the West as “an island besieged” (HCN, 1/21/02: The American West is an island besieged) presents a brief […]
Posted inFebruary 12, 2001: Mr. Babbitt's wild ride
Unwise welcome?
Dear HCN, “Troubled harvest,” your Dec. 18 lament over an immigration policy that doesn’t encourage immigration, reads like a plea for “wise use.” A population that grew more than 13 percent in the 1990s – the fastest growth rate among the industrial nations – exacerbates virtually all of the environmental problems covered so well by […]
Posted inSeptember 29, 1997: The timber wars evolve into a divisive attempt at peace
Excerpts from a New West dictionary
cal*i*for*ni*an (kal’ u forn’ yun) n. 1. resident of the state of California. 2. imprudent spender single-handedly responsible for inflated values of real property. [earlier form: Texan] en*dan*gered spe*cies (en dan’ grd spe’ sez) n. 1. every group that has had a representative address a public hearing in the West: “Ranchers, miners, etc.: We’re the […]
Posted inFebruary 20, 1995: No more ignoring the obvious: Idaho sucks itself dry
Why bother to save the West?
Ed Marston’s call to save the West (HCN, 12/26/94) was a well-intentioned plea for protecting the population and communities here from the larger forces at work upon them. Sadly, it lacks a historical context and appears to invoke the same type of preservationist mentality that is often damned when it is wielded by environmentalists. Implicit […]