Letter to the editor

Dear HCN, After watching Elbert County, Colo., endure the nation’s second-fastest growth rate for the past few years, I envy “Wyoming’s unique mix of apathy and arrogance,” as described by Paul Krza (HCN, 7/6/98). The correspondent reveals a disregard for the native values of Wyoming citizens, assuming that they’re dull and backwards because they seek […]

Dear HCN, We are disgusted with your article, “Riding the Wyoming Brand” (HCN, 7/6/98). This is liberal Democratic Party propaganda designed to slam the good conservative values we have in Wyoming. I would have thought High Country News would never lower itself to this kind of slander, but I was wrong. Gov. Jim Geringer and […]

Dear HCN, It seems nearly every issue of High Country News has some article dealing with the decline and fall of the U.S. Forest Service. This strikes near and dear to my heart since I spent over 27 years with the agency. The agency is not the same one I started working for in 1970. […]

Dear HCN, I often wonder how anyone can be anti-environmentalist, and there are sure a lot of folks who feel that way, especially here in Idaho. To me, being anti-environmentalist is being anti-life, anti-happiness, anti-future. But when I see statements like those attributed to mystery writer Nevada Barr (HCN, 5/25/98), in which she suggests it […]

Dear HCN, Criticize Alex Cockburn if you must, and he certainly gives one plenty of opportunity (HCN, 5/11/98). No one ever accused him of keeping his opinions to himself. And, no one would ever accuse him of infallibility – remember, he thinks Lee Oswald was a lone Socialist hero! But, claiming that environmental groups use […]

Dear HCN, “Tackling Tamarisk” (HCN, 5/25/98) lifts the lid on a nasty can of worms, namely the invasion of Western wildlands by alien plants – those dreaded weeds. Paul Larmer credits tamarisks with spreading into “virtually every river system in the West.” Could be, depending on the definition of “river system.” More to the point […]

Dear HCN, Just when I begin to believe that you guys are presenting a fair picture of what’s happening on the environmental front in the West, you dash my hopes once again. In the recent issue, in the Hotline section (HCN, 6/8/98), you have the famous John Horning overgrazing picture that’s been used to death […]

Dear HCN, I was somewhat surprised at High Country News’ article, “How California Poisoned a Small Town,” since it only provided one side of the issue – and a locally biased one at that (HCN, 5/25/98). While I believe that the removal of the predatory pike from Lake Davis was fully justified, both biologically and […]

Dear HCN, I read with amusement the “ranting and raving” of W.M. Martin from Arizona (HCN, 5/25/98) about the Californians moving to his state, complaining about everything, but not moving. Now it’s my turn to rant. I sneaked into Idaho from Pennsylvania a few years back and have complained about Idaho in the same way […]

Dear HCN, Ranching historian Tom Sheridan’s statement that the Southwest Center for Biological Diversity’s Endangered Species Act lawsuits are bad for rural landscapes because they make life tougher for ranchers is a bit off (HCN, 6/8/98). In his letter, Tom paraphrases James Carville, saying, “It’s land fragmentation, stupid.” In fact, it’s habitat fragmentation we should […]

Dear HCN, I just read your April 27 story about Forest Service Chief Mike Dombeck. As a member of a Forest Service family that has been stuck in Idaho for almost seven years, I’d like to add a field perspective to opinions about Mr. Dombeck. The direction that keeps coming down from Washington, D.C., is […]

Dear HCN, Is there any hope that change will come from within either the Bureau of Land Management or Forest Service? My naive answer as a former federal public-lands agency employee used to be “yes,” if enough conservationists and a few good leaders entered the ranks. Now, after 20 years, my answer is a feeble […]

Dear HCN, Pat Tucker and Bruce Weide’s article on wolves contains many errors (HCN, 4/13/98). Wolves were not “occasional loners’ in central Idaho’s wilds, prior to the recent release, as their article asserts. There is ample evidence that wolves did inhabit the Greater Salmon-Selway Ecosystem, dating back to the first confirmed sightings from the late […]

Dear HCN, A complete review of the situation is the subject of a book, not an article, but in response to Mr. Macfarlane’s more salient complaints: 1) There was no reliable documentation of wolves breeding in central Idaho, despite the efforts of trained, professional biologists to find them. If wolves had, as Mr. Macfarlane claims, […]

Dear HCN, As a fan of fire (and past pulaski-wielding partisan of that subgenus “flamebo heroicus’), I read the article about early fires in the West by Mark Matthews with great interest (HCN, 5/25/98). The various signs and symptoms he surveyed were familiar: “I’ve never seen things burn this well, this early in the year.” […]

Dear HCN, Only a couple of years ago Utah Sen. Bob Bennett appeared at a town meeting and, in response to some agitated inquiries, produced a magnificent color photograph of a green canyon in southern Utah. This was his proof that the area was even greener now than it was in another photograph of the […]

Dear HCN, Thanks for Jon Margolis’ piece exposing the West’s new menace (HCN, 4/27/98); for far too long, the recreation/tourism industry has been treated with kid gloves, wrongly presumed environmentally benign. Yet, while I applaud questioning the motives of the American Recreation Coalition, there is hidden in Margolis’ analysis a seriously flawed and potentially destructive […]

Dear HCN, Ted Williams in his essay on fishing said that “What so offends the animal-rights crowd about catch-and-release is that there can be no motive other than fun” (HCN, 5/25/98). This statement, while true, only gives half of the reason. The other is much more important and severe. When a fish is hooked and […]

Dear HCN, I have been an avid reader of High Country News for several years and have enjoyed its insightful take on the issues shaping the West as we head into the 21st century. I am, however, deeply disturbed by your recent coverage of the Sierra Club ballot question, “Give me your tired, your poor, […]

Dear HCN, I just received my April 27 issue of HCN and it’s without a doubt your best issue. I can’t thank you enough for Jon Margolis’ article on the coming threat of industrial recreation. Like Scott Silver, most of my personal life outside of work has been taken over by trying to get the […]