REPLANTING THE PRAIRIE
If you want to maximize biodiversity — now recognized as intimately connected to climate warming — you need to preserve and increase your native grasslands (“Prairie Revival,” November 2024). That’s where the insects are, and foragers after the insects pass that energy up the long food chain.
Jake Sigg
San Francisco, California
I have been a lover of prairies for years. Is there a nonprofit that could receive donations to buy swaths of land to plant prairie? Or help pay for seed? Or dig up poison hemlock? I am not a big donor, but this seems like a wonderful way to heal after this terrible election. Maybe we could create a National Prairie Organization.
Jane Martin
Whidbey Island, Washington
MORE TRANSLATIONS
I just finished the “Latino Vote 2024” issue (October) and both the Spanish and English versions of “El Voto Indeciso Latino” and “Poder Latino.” While I was stoked to see Spanish content in HCN, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that this issue only offers Spanish-speakers’ translations of articles about phenomena Latinos are experiencing firsthand. Latino communities already know that mainstream political platforms don’t reflect their needs, and we already know our families and neighbors fall on vastly different points on the political spectrum. It’s helpful to know reworking districts can create better representation for us, as it has in Yakima. But for the most part, these articles — while news to non-Hispanic readers — are not news to us.
Translating only these types of pieces robs Spanish-speakers of the opportunity to learn about critical current issues and further isolates them. To really promote bilingual journalism in the West, HCN should translate articles that aren’t explicitly about Latinos, too.
Kira Córdova
Littleton, Colorado
A WESTERN PARADOX
What bitter irony to read in the same HCN issue about the privileged miseries of a group of rebellious white ranchers who have successfully cheated the federal government (meaning every American citizen) out of a million dollars in public-lands grazing fees (“The legacy of Bunkerville,” October 2024), juxtaposed with a story about Native Americans having to pay to graze cattle on land we stole from them, not once, but twice (“Trust Issues,” October 2024).
Linda Paul
Boise, Idaho
COSTLY CUTS
Thank you for Nick Bowlin’s recent article (“The Forest Service is cutting its seasonal workforce and public lands will suffer,” Oct. 8, 2024) about the Forest Service’s devastating decision to not hire seasonal employees in 2025 (and likely 2026). I’ve worked on a trail crew on Washington’s Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest for eight years. This was my first year as a permanent seasonal employee. I recognize that my being spared from these disastrous cuts is a fluke of timing more than anything else. There are legions of employees with as much or more experience and skill as me who are not permanent, and whose deep knowledge and contributions to their programs will now be lost. Bowlin captured the scope of this crisis — and it is a crisis — admirably.
While the hiring freeze does not technically apply to fire positions, many non-fire employees obtain firefighting qualifications every year and serve in crucial support roles on fires across the country. The loss of non-fire temporary seasonals will absolutely have an impact on firefighting capacity.
As the field season winds down, the mood on my ranger district, and in districts across the country, is heavy as we try to imagine next year without the incredible colleagues and good friends whose dedication and passion form the backbone of this agency — and whose work makes it possible for millions of Americans to experience our public lands. If anything good is to come from this mess, my hope is that it will finally increase awareness of what for too long has been the largely invisible and thankless essential work of stewarding our national forests. I hope the eventual upshot of this crisis will be increased pay, benefits and job security and improved working conditions for people like me and my colleagues and the next generation of Forest Service workers.
Claire Thompson
Peshastin, Washington
A DECENT CAMPAIGN
I absolutely loved the editor’s note in the October 2024 issue, “Democracy on high.” It was refreshing and exciting to see someone writing about the need for a planet with clean water and a habitable climate! I heartily subscribe to all of your beliefs and agree with your campaign slogans, especially: Be kind to one another. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?
Keep up your good work, especially with issues like October’s election coverage. I salute you.
Steve Forsythe
Tulsa, Oklahoma
COMMON VALUES
B. “Toastie” Oaster raises an important topic concerning the difficulty of communicating to both Native and non-Native audiences (“How do you describe a sacred site without describing it?” October 2024). In an understandable reluctance to describe a sacred site, first foods, ceremonies, etc., so as not to endanger the site itself, we could mistakenly think that we’re left with indescribable land. But what makes the land sacred is the relationship that Native people have with it, and what that relationship means to them — family, community, connection to ancestors and all things, well-being, a way of life, etc. Talking about the relationship evokes universal human values — something that both Native and non-Native people can relate to.
Amy Gulick
Clinton, Washington
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