Letter to the editor

Dear HCN, Joy Belsky, a staffer for the Oregon Natural Desert Association, wrote a thoughtful letter about matters of the imagination in the form of a critique of my essay, “Los Alamos is burning” (HCN, 5/22/00: ‘Los Alamos is burning’). By way of reply let me suggest that we don’t have to imagine a zero-cut […]

Dear HCN, Montana’s gallivanting Gov. Marc Racicot recently bellyached in Washington, D.C., about the administration’s roadless initiative. Since his case had just been thrown out of court in Idaho, maybe he was seeking refuge with fellow anti-enviros inside the Beltway. Obviously, he’s not listening to most of his constituents. Most Montanans, like the great majority […]

Dear HCN, After reading the Geof Koss story, “Hikers stumble into an old dispute” (HCN, 5/22/00: Hikers stumble into an old dispute), I am reminded that any form of tourism on New Mexico land grants, or in traditional Hispano lands of southwestern and south central Colorado, must not merely purport to “respect” Native American and […]

Dear HCN, Thanks for running Guy Webster’s item on the Kanab ambersnail (HCN, 7/31/00: The snail that stands like a dam). All too often “endangered species’ are pegged as furry, feathered or scaly. There are lots more, all parts of the big story, like the ambersnail. And it’s amazing just how much mileage scientists have […]

Dear HCN, Perhaps after losing one too many a battle, Steve Hinchman has lost his will to fight for what “should be,” and now advocates for what he thinks “can be,” given political realities and resistance from local communities (HCN, 7/31/00: Rural Green: A new shade of activism). Where would we be today if the […]

Dear HCN, Just a short comment on Susan Tixier’s letter (HCN, 8/28/00: Wilderness needs strong advocates). It’s deceptively easy to airily dismiss the entire body politic from the wilderness debate by saying, “It’s about the land, not the people.” Many Utah activists have embraced this view, with the predictable result that no new wilderness areas […]

Dear HCN, Your article on coal mining in the North Fork of the Gunnison River was interesting in its happy-happy spin on ersatz consensus and collaboration groups (HCN, 7/31/00: Out of the darkness: A Western Colorado community meets a coal boom halfway). As an environmental activist, the main question I had was this: “Was the […]

Dear HCN, If Erec Hopkins, the small-town meth reformee pictured in your Aug. 14 issue, is going straight, then why is he shown wearing a 420 T-shirt? Is it possible that Stephen Lyons doesn’t know that 420 is the drug users’ code for smoking marijuana? I teach high school English in rural Utah, and was […]

Dear HCN, I read Hal Herring’s review of the documentary, Killing Coyote, in the July 31 issue of High Country News with great interest. So much so, in fact, that I bought a copy of the video. Mr. Herring describes a visit by Doug Hawes-Davis to the Logan Field Station of the National Wildlife Research […]

In his criticism of our new feature film, Killing Coyote, Russ Mason is only defending his life’s work, which is understandable. Mason states that “film shot by NBC was used by Hawes-Davis to portray “….tightly bound coyotes being injected with the latest birth control potion,” after being “… dragged from its pen.” ” The first […]

Dear HCN, Sure have been enjoying my HCNs lately, but as roving critic laureate, I must insist that Lou “White Dork” Bendrick be informed that WEASELS ARE NOT RODENTS (HCN, 8/14/00: Native American Wannabes: Beware the Weasel Spirit). They are not only not in the same FAMILY, they are not even in the same order. […]

Dear HCN, I appreciated the interview with Steve Hinchman in the July 31 issue. It’s encouraging to know that there are other people who understand the problems that “recreation-based environmentalism” is causing in the rural West. Although I considered myself an environmentalist back when the movement was still the grassroots underdog, I’m terrified now at […]

Dear HCN, Thanks for the tribute to our late friend Lynn Dickey (HCN, 6/19/00: Dear Friends). She was a gentle giant, for sure. It always amazed me that she was in the world of rough and tumble politics but not of that world. She was always a calming influence. I remember the United Mine Workers […]

Dear HCN, I would like to respond on behalf of the Great Old Broads for Wilderness to the Steve Hinchman interview Ed Marston did for the July 31 edition. I know Steve and respect and admire the work he has done on the West Slope. Recently, as executive director of the Colorado Environmental Coalition, I […]

Dear HCN, In Jon Margolis’ article on “property rightsniks’ (HCN, 6/5/00: Can ‘property rightsniks’ stop a popular bill?), he says, “Mainly, though, the very irrationality of the opponents is rational. Their purpose is not to make sense, nor even to win votes, but to oppose, and to prosper while doing it. Cushman’s American Land Rights […]

Dear HCN, Let me calm down a minute here before trying to respond to Denver’s Wayne Schnell. His bigotry in the July 3 issue deserves some comment and analysis. First, Mr. Schnell, if you want Mexican nationals to stop coming to the U.S., stop hiring them to do the work you disdain or find some […]

Dear HCN, I am concerned about the call to logging put forward in Frank Carroll’s essay, “Los Alamos is burning” (HCN, 5/22/00: Los Alamos is burning), and I am concerned about the “BLM … planting millions of acres in non-native crested wheatgrass.” I am a biologist who used to work for the BLM in eastern […]

Dear HCN, Some Westerners seem to believe that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt is the only one who ever moved, under presidential direction, to encourage the preservation of land and water under national monument designation. America has had 48 secretaries of the Interior. Since the passage by Congress in 1906 of the act that allows presidents […]

Dear HCN, In his essay, “Los Alamos is burning” (HCN, 5/22/00: Los Alamos is burning), Frank Carroll, formerly with the Forest Service and now with Potlatch Corp., presented us with two stretches of the imagination. First, he managed to avoid placing any blame for the Los Alamos fire on the Forest Service and other land-management […]

Dear HCN, I’ve just read Ed Marston’s column about the Los Alamos fire (HCN, 5/22/00: Yelling fire in a crowded West). I was disappointed to see no discussion of the impact of climate change on fire regimes and the occurrence of catastrophic crown fires in recent decades, despite the severe drought under which the New […]