Letter to the editor

Dear HCN, Four things that I wish you had covered in your story on lead in condors (HCN, 2/18/02: Condor program laden with lead): 1) The problem is with deer gut piles left by legal hunting, probably not with wounded and lost game. Gut piles from legally taken game number in the hundreds during the […]

Dear HCN, Your excellent story on snowmobiles and West Yellowstone (HCN, 4/1/02: Move over!) demonstrates one among several points: After a new, destructive practice has gained a foothold in the local economy, it can be virtually impossible to control, much less dislodge. People who valued tranquility, clean water, kayaking, wildlife and traditional island values decided […]

Dear HCN, You can imagine how “silly” I felt when I read Glen Loomis’ comments about the snowmobile curfew (“it would be one more of the freedoms in our country whittled away”) (HCN, 4/1/02: Move over!). I felt “silly” as I realized that I must have been too preoccupied with my head being up my […]

Dear HCN, In your last two issues you featured articles on the snowmobiles in West Yellowstone (HCN, 4/1/02: Move over!) and the dairy farms in Idaho’s Magic Valley (HCN, 4/15/02: Raising a stink). There is a common and infuriating thread: The producers of pollution, be it noise or bad odors, noxious fumes or foul wastes, […]

Dear HCN, I do not want to tell you that Ed Quillen’s article about Mel Coleman (HCN, 4/1/02: The ‘Niche West’ reconnects us to the land) was worth the price of this year’s subscription, but it’s some of the best work he or you has done. You can remind me of that next time I […]

Dear HCN, As any HCN reader knows, there’s a whole lot to environmentally responsible red-meat ranching: including, but not limited to, conscientious stocking and grazing rotation, scrupulous protection of riparian areas, big-hearted attitudes about the presence of large canid predators as vital, rightful, native members of the ecosystems into which exotic, domestic, grazing animals are […]

Dear HCN, Re: your recent article, “Habitat protection takes a critical hit” (HCN, 4/15/02: Habitat protection takes a critical hit). What has happened here is that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service performed a very poor and cursory economic analysis in establishing critical habitat for the southern willow flycatcher in New Mexico, and they got […]

Dear HCN, Regarding the article about habitat protection taking a hit under the Bush administration (HCN, 4/15/02: Habitat protection takes a critical hit), may I say about the Sierra Club’s Bill Arthur quote: It takes one to know one. It was the Clinton administration that waited for environmentalists to file lawsuits and then settled the […]

Dear HCN, Finding ways to make the Forest Service more accountable is an admirable task. Excluding the public from Forest Service decisions will make things worse. The Charter Forest idea will exclude the public from decision-making processes. Charter forest projects will likely cost the taxpayers more and provide environmentally harmful results. The vast majority of […]

Dear HCN, In Ed Marston’s review of Char Miller’s book, Gifford Pinchot and the Foundation of Modern Environmentalism (HCN, 3/18/02: Will the real Gifford Pinchot please stand up), he states that “the Forest Service, safe within the Department of Agriculture, went on to slaughter the national forests after World War II.” How outlandish! If so, […]

Dear HCN, Ed Quillen’s essay rings a bell here in our Carson Valley (HCN, 4/1/02: The ‘Niche West’ reconnects us to the land). We have a thriving native seed company, and during the last two years we have discovered native crops on several of the valley ranches. The development pressure has been enticing local ranchers […]

Dear HCN, The George Sibley article is one of the best I have ever read (HCN, 3/18/02: How I lost my town). He has summed up how we have given away the mountain towns we came to Colorado to enjoy. Most of us are just mad and can’t express our frustrations. George has expressed our […]

Dear HCN, I am skeptical of the concept of “Charter Forests” (HCN, 3/18/02: Can ‘charter forests’ remake an agency?), especially when I observe who is backing it – the timber industry and its supporters in Congress and the Bush administration. Under the guise of streamlining decision making within the Forest Service, the real intent appears […]

Dear HCN, After reading Erika Trautman’s article, “Will listing hurt the Colorado lynx?” (HCN, 1/21/02: Will listing hurt the Colorado lynx?), I decided to do more research about the reintroduction program in Colorado. One of the more crucial points of the article seemed to be buried at the end of the article. Tonya Shenk, head […]

Dear HCN, A very heartfelt essay by George Sibley (HCN, 3/18/02: How I lost my town). Unfortunately, Colorado is not the only place in the West which is suffering this plight. Before moving to Reno 12 years ago, I was a resident of Truckee, Calif., 30 miles “up valley” to the west. The former railroad/mill […]

Dear HCN, I want to belatedly thank you for Barbara Schuster’s fantastic article on silencing LDS trash talk (HCN, 2/4/02: Why the bad rap for Mormons?). I grew up in the Idaho end of Cache Valley and was never a part of the “Salt Lake Society,” thus missing things here in SLC at that time. […]

Dear HCN, A belated thank you for your coverage of the resort development slated for lands adjacent to our fine town of Roslyn, Wash. (HCN, 3/4/02: Development threatens historic town). Since your report, Trendwest Resorts, Inc., has been sold to the very large hotel and travel company, Cendant Corporation, for $894 million in stock. The […]

Dear HCN, While there’s no question that U.S. Forest Service management and decision making could use some progressive reform, the Bush administration’s proposal to establish “charter forests” takes it in the wrong direction (HCN, 3/18/02: Can ‘charter forests’ remake an agency?). Putting the future of our public national forests in the hands of any narrow […]

Dear HCN, I appreciated George Sibley’s essay, “How I lost my town” (HCN, 3/18/02: How I lost my town), and I can certainly empathize with his loss. In 1981, I spent a month near Crested Butte as a student on an environmental policy field course. Locals were celebrating AMAX’s cancellation of the proposed Mount Emmons […]

Dear HCN, An absolutely brilliant essay by George Sibley (HCN, 3/18/02: How I lost my town). Memorable lines, sweeping flourishes, paragraphs that could stand alone as poetry. But when you take it all in, Sibley never “had” a town or “had” any place else. Missing was some call to action. It was kind of nihilistic. […]