Letter to the editor

Dear HCN, I read with some puzzlement your edition of Sept. 25, in which you applaud the use of propane-powered buses in Zion National Park, then promptly deride the natural gas industry, the source of that propane. I’ve always respected the High Country News for what I thought was balanced, in-depth reporting on contentious environmental […]

Dear HCN, Early in the 1990s, I was among a chartered busload of residents who traveled to Denver to attend a Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission meeting. It was an enlightening experience to learn that residents had no standing to speak or participate in any way at this meeting. But the volume of people […]

Dear HCN, The firearm Don Barnett holds in your photo on page 8 in the Oct. 9 issue of HCN, on the Mexican-U.S. border, is not a machine gun. Such an error does us all a disservice by needlessly inflaming the already emotional issues of Second Amendment rights and illegal immigration. The latter you have […]

Dear HCN, I appreciate your essay about the need for historically accurate monuments and markers across the West (HCN, 9/25/00: Truth-telling needs a home in the West). Someone who is very eloquent on this issue is James Loewen, who wrote Lies Across America: What Our Historic Markers and Monuments Get Wrong. Unfortunately, the marker which […]

Dear HCN, The first lesson you learn if you want to be a conservation activist is that you have to know what you’re talking about. Otherwise, you lose credibility. Unfortunately, Larry Tuttle’s letter (HCN, 9/25/00: Response to ‘squishy-soft’) reflects that he has yet to learn that lesson. Our suggestion? Visit the Northern Plains Resource Council’s […]

Dear HCN, I was disappointed to read your newspaper’s article of Sept. 25 titled “Backyard Boom” by Rebecca Clarren and the associated sidebar article titled “The playing field has to be leveled.” What concerns me the most is that there does not appear to have been an attempt to verify sources or obtain the other […]

Dear HCN, As a former 18-year resident of Washington state (1982-2000), journalist and participant in politics there, I found Steve Stuebner’s article on Slade Gorton a disappointing concoction of free advertising for tribal and environmental biases. The article had its moments in viewing a tight race for the Senate, featuring a strong Democratic candidate who […]

Dear HCN, Thanks for your recent issue on coalbed methane. It was wonderful to see you treat an issue that is widespread, complex, and far from environmentally benign, despite methane being labeled a “green” fuel. I have to admit to being a little disappointed that you didn’t say anything about the Raton Basin here in […]

Dear HCN, Thanks for that excellent article and wake-up call about the “meth invasion” by Stephen Lyons. As a retired detective (NYPD), I know the value of informing the public about the drug perils in their midst, even in the most, so-called, unlikely places. An alerted public could well be a major factor in dealing […]

Dear HCN, Fine piece on the late John Sawhill by Jon Margolis (HCN, 9/11/00: Remembering an establishment revolutionary). Lest anyone forget, he was one helluva public servant, and that rare breed, a GOP conservationist. As a Newsweek Washington correspondent, I covered him in the Nixon and Ford administrations during which he put the first ax […]

Dear HCN, As the nation prepares for the upcoming presidential election, it is so sad to read about the formation of the group “Environmentalists Against Gore” (HCN, 8/28/00: The Latest Bounce). If this group succeeds in what must be its goal, we will get George W. Bush as our next president. If this is what […]

Dear HCN, Concerning Jim Robbins’ “Holy Water”: It is very good to see the Catholic Church taking some more specific steps (in the Columbia River basin pastoral letter) toward applying the ideas in Renewing the Earth (HCN, 9/11/00: Excerpts from the pastoral letter draft). I would like to set the record straight, however (or at […]

Dear HCN, Thanks to HCN and Jim Robbins for the fine piece on the Columbia River Pastoral Letter Project (“Holy Water,” HCN, 9/11/00: Holy Water). The pastoral letter is a good example of what some have called the “greening” of the Christian Church. Other efforts to make Christianity more “earth friendly” are under way among […]

Dear HCN, It is with much amusement that I read the letters about my defeats, moral decay and capitulation to the forces of the dark side. Is the environmental movement so rigid and dogmatic that it would assault character in order to quash dissent? (HCN, 9/11/00: Wilderness is the key). To start with, who said […]

Dear HCN, We were surprised to read HCN’s fawning interview with Floyd Dominy (HCN, 8/28/00: Floyd Dominy: An encounter with the West’s undaunted dam-builder), a man who is obviously proud of his role in destroying significant portions of the Colorado River watershed. Floyd is the (washed-up) Darth Vader of Western rivers, and rather than unmask […]

Dear HCN, Ed Marston’s “Squishy-soft processes – hard results’ leaves the false impression that the Hells Canyon Preservation Council is opposed to collaboration (HCN, 8/28/00: Squishy-soft processes – hard results). His misrepresentation is an affront to the collaborative processes the group has founded, including discussions on resource issues with local eastern Oregon ranchers, hunters, tribes […]

Dear HCN, Thank you for the great commentary on collaboration and the criticism it receives (HCN, 8/28/00: Squishy-soft processes – hard results). As someone who has participated in several of these processes on behalf of ranchers and farmers, I’ve been told that collaborators are those that helped the Nazis in World War II France and […]

Dear HCN, Few historians make Westerners more uncomfortable than Bernard DeVoto. Ed Marston’s Aug. 25, “Squishy-soft processes – hard results” article brings to mind one of DeVoto’s stinging bromides: “The West does not really want to be liberated from the system of exploitation that it has always violently resented. It only wants to buy into […]

Dear HCN, I had the good fortune to visit with Lynn Dickey more than a decade ago, while researching the nuclear weapons train through the West (HCN, 6/5/00: Dear Friends). Lynn was a critical link in the chain of activists along the train route, and organized protests whenever weapons were shipped through her district. I […]

Dear HCN, As always, your Aug. 28 issue was quite informative and very enjoyable. One critique I must make, though, has to deal with Rocky Barker’s analysis on the latest federal salmon plan. A reference was made about the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in the central mountains of Idaho. He went on to […]