Letter to the editor

Dear HCN, Even as a wildlife student in the early 1970s, I was appalled when I learned that a 400-pound animal that can survive without free water (the oryx) had been introduced into the White Sands Missile Range (HCN, 10/22/01: A graceful gazelle becomes a pest). The potential for an ecological disaster seemed all too […]

Dear HCN, After a brief look at a picture of Steve Stuebner (HCN, 9/24/01: Nature hits a home run for salmon), I had to feel a pang of disbelief that an old adversary of mine would do such an unnatural act. All adiposed salmon and steelhead caught in Idaho waters must be immediately released. Smolts […]

Dear HCN, I had to chuckle at California BLM official Gail O’Neill’s lamentation that her staff is spending weeks away from normal duties to ensure that cattle stay out of Mojave desert tortoise habitat (HCN, 11/5/01: Cattle make way for tortoises in the Mojave). What possible duties could the BLM, the nation’s largest public-land and […]

Dear HCN, As a displaced Montana native and student of Western history, I only began subscribing to HCN last year, although another Yellowstone Park buff had recommended it to me some time before. I’ve enjoyed reading about water, wildlife, ranching and other environmental issues covered in your paper. At the same time, I’ve been trying […]

Dear HCN, I would like to register a firm objection to the recent cover story, “Healing the Gila” (HCN, 10/22/01: Healing the Gila). I was distressed by its old-fashioned, polemical, “Good Guy vs. Bad Guy” tone, which seems out of character with recent cover stories in HCN. You’ve done a very good job recently covering […]

Dear HCN, In his rush to support environmental activists and ignorance of ecological processes, Tony Davis unwittingly reveals two major fallacies of the anti-grazing movement (HCN, 10/22/01: Healing the Gila). The first involves ecological site potential and the misconception that all you have to do is take the cows off and stand back. “It will […]

Dear HCN, I was shocked to find myself quoted as saying that environmentalists are “bayoneting the wounded” in your piece on the Eagle Timber Sale (HCN, 9/24/01: The timber sale that won’t die). These were not my words and I thought that I had made that clear to the reporter. In retrospect, I regret having […]

Dear HCN, Paul Larmer’s opinion, “The enduring Endangered Species Act,” left me bewildered (HCN, 9/24/01: The enduring Endangered Species Act). From the trenches of the rural West, the ESA doesn’t seem to be accomplishing nearly the wonders that you claim. In fact, it appears to be doing the opposite. You wrote, “We need both litigation […]

Dear HCN, Rebecca Clarren’s review of the book Riders of the West (HCN, 10/8/01: Indians are cowboys), about the Indian rodeo circuit, contained a sentence I found most disturbing: “It depicts how rodeo helps Indian youth create a legacy of hope and pride, transcending the severe poverty and rampant alcoholism that often await them beyond […]

Dear HCN, As an American who immigrated to Canada a couple years ago, I was curious to read your story about efforts to protect the Rocky Mountain Front on our side of the border (HCN, 10/8/01: Whoa! Canada!). While I thought the article was generally fairly good, there were two obvious errors of fact that […]

Dear HCN, Your article on alleged “ecoterrorism” is misleading and perpetuates the propaganda of polluting industry representatives who have already co-opted mass media (HCN, 10/8/01: Terrorist attacks echo in the West). The Vail fires of 1998, which are better categorized as sabotage, have little to do with terrorism. Terrorism is “best defined as the use […]

Dear HCN, Although I long ago gave up hunting, it was refreshing to read such a sensitive, respectful view of nature, wilderness and wildlife as was depicted in Tom Reed’s essay, “In the house of the grizzly” (HCN, 9/24/01: In the house of the grizzly). I wish many more hunters and people out for recreation […]

Dear HCN, As one involved in political discussions that led to the Elwha River legislation, and to progress made for dam removal, I think Adam Burke deserves an A- (nobody is perfect) for his article “River of dreams” (HCN, 9/24/01: River of dreams). I am sure Burke discovered this is a complicated story with many […]

Dear HCN, It’s clear that Ben Long simply used his impression and interpretation of something that happened nearly 60 years ago to write an article about an unfortunate event in American history that, I’m sure, all Americans wish had never occurred (HCN, 10/8/01: Lessons of an intolerant past). Was it wrong to intern those Japanese […]

Dear HCN, I want to take this time to comment vociferously about a trend I see in HCN‘s Writers on the Range columns. And I am not at all happy with it! There have been at least three columns published this year in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle that are a bunch of bull! If I […]

Dear HCN, I had to respond to the following statement from the Sept. 10 article about shooting in Arizona: ” ‘I go out to these places, carpeted with spent brass (cartridges), a car door over here, a TV or a propane bottle over there, and what I see is unbridled freedom…’ ” I lived in […]

Dear HCN, I have been on a crusade to stamp out redundancies and the use of the plural when referring to the Sierra Nevada, which means Snowy Range. It is just plain Sierra or Sierra Nevada, not Sierras or Sierra Nevadas, Sierra Nevada Mountains, or Sierra Nevada Range. Your Aug. 27 issue did get it […]

Dear HCN, I just wanted to congratulate you and Craig Childs on the wonderful article about desert streams (HCN, 9/10/01: The rise and fall of a desert stream). I thought that was the most inspirational and entertaining reading that I have ever seen in HCN (which is saying a lot, by the way). I enjoyed […]

Dear HCN, In his piece on Brad Powell, the Forest Service’s Regional Forester for California (HCN, 9/10/01: New forest chief becomes a lame duck), Ed Marston makes it sound like Dale Bosworth fired Powell. In fact, Powell is moving to Missoula to become regional forester for the Northern Region (North Idaho, Montana, North Dakota). That’s […]

Dear HCN, I am a reader with only a single year of experience with your publication. I have learned to enjoy the doom, irritation, pique and hope that your publication brings to my home on a periodic basis. Being a born-and-bred Lexingtonian (“Home of the Revolution,” don’t you know …), my move West opened my […]