As a new administration begins to overhaul U.S. regulatory system, we take a deeper look at the meaning of wilderness. Florence Williams, in our cover feature, tags along on an Idaho outing along a “River of No Return.” The experience proved transformative for many of the women, damaged by the war, who found solace in nature.

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Toward understanding

I subscribed to HCN in the ’80s and ’90s. I enjoyed it because at that time HCN seemed to be somewhat more balanced. I can remember articles about farmers and others who were profiled positively for protecting the environment, yet still retaining farming as their livelihood. I find no balance at all in today’s HCN.…

by Karen Jones

A wild thought

It may be gone by the time you read this, but a compelling historic photograph was still posted on Obamawhitehouse.gov in mid-January: 11-year-old Barack Obama, his face turned from the camera, standing with his grandmother at a scenic overlook in Yellowstone National Park. Below the picture, Obama writes: “I still remember traveling up to Yellowstone…

by Paul Larmer

Another wrong bird

Please relay my appreciation to author Michael Baughman for his essay on turkey vulture for Thanksgiving dinner (“Right holiday, wrong bird,” HCN, 12/26/16). I’m still laughing. When my boyfriend and I were duck hunting in the mid-’70s, I asked him if he’d ever tasted a mud duck. He hadn’t, so, being a curious type of…

by Sally Sherman

Code of silence

I worked as a park ranger, one of the first woman hired into a state park system. I felt lucky and privileged that this career was even possible. Part of the package was fitting in with “the guys” (“How the Park Service is Failing Women,” HCN, 12/12/16). Countless times I bit my tongue with a…

by Janet Carle

Hidden costs

Your article on the Dakota Access Pipeline was good as far as it went (“The twisted economics of the Dakota Access Pipeline,” HCN, 12/12/16). You omitted a very important issue that makes your assumptions incorrect. You are probably right in that there will be profit by someone from the pipeline installation. What you left out…

by Darryl Sackmann