A rural town in eastern Oregon is dealing with the fallout after a genetically modified grass escapes the confines of experimental fields. The herbicide-resistant turf clogs irrigation canals and ditches — and illustrates the mile-wide regulatory loopholes that are failing to contain the spread of genetically engineered crops. Also in this issue, the Trump administration threatens the delicate balance between tranquility and solar energy development in the California desert, the Grand Canyon may face a new era of uranium mining and a photo essay explores the displaced native creatures of the Los Angeles River.

Credit: Otto Kitsinger Credit: Otto Kitsinger

Download the Digital Issue

Self-righteous charlatans

Bravo to Tay Wiles for her insightful profile of the Bundy family and their sympathizers (“Celebrity scofflaw,” HCN, 4/30/18). It is disturbing that there are actually people and politicians who believe that Cliven Bundy and his family are martyrs or folk heroes who have “legitimate grievances” in their battle with the U.S. government. They don’t.…

by Andy Wiessner

Systemic discrimination

Thanks for Wayne Hare’s article on Portland segregation (“ ‘Alienated’ in Portland,” HCN, 5/28/18). The process by which blacks are segregated and redlined is common everywhere. Our church here in Louisville, Kentucky, recently hosted a four-part series on systemic racism. We learned there that the same thing happened here — and happens everywhere. I had…

by Joy Jamison

Without a whimper

Thank you for a well-written article on this amazing animal (“A quiet goodbye to the Selkirk caribou,” HCN, 5/28/18). Author Ben Long captured my thoughts on how we got them to this place, and the lack of voices for their needs to be heard. I saw them up close just over a decade ago, about…

by Martha Jordan

A tailings-pile childhood

Ah, fond memories of growing up playing in the Animas (“The River of Lost Souls,” HCN, 5/28/18). I, too, well remember the dust from the tailings pile swirling through the valley and dusting the town. My brother, Woody, used to sneak over and ski the tailings pile. I’ve always wondered: Did the rare cancer that…

by Dennis Hesselbarth

Millennials, of course

“Death in the Alpine” (HCN, 5/14/18) reads like yet another article bemoaning millennials and their obsession with social media. However, given the increase in popularity of outdoor recreation reported on this same issue (i.e., on page 9, “Recreation is redefining the value of the West’s public lands,”) it seems a much more straightforward explanation simply…

by Mara McPartland

Sagebrush birdsong

What a lovely piece (“The benediction of a bird,” HCN, 5/28/18). I feel the same about the song of the horned lark — a weightless, upward jumble of notes that never fails to remind me of my home among the sagebrush of the high desert. Thank goodness for birds to fill the air with song…

by Jessica Neuwell