Letter to the editor

Thank you for your recent coverage of the impacts and politics of invasive species (HCN, 6/22/98). The spread and establishment of exotics in the West is truly one of the least recognized natural-resource challenges of our time and one which promises to overwhelm the stability and health of our ecosystems if left unchecked. To help […]

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, 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, 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 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 […]

It’s difficult to respond to such off-issue, personal attacks and the chest-thumpings of Idaho nationalism as Peterson’s (HCN, 5/25/98) and Medberry’s (HCN, 4/13/98) – weak and flaccid as they are, full of red herrings and other beneath-the-belt cow droppings – but my point remains: Idaho doesn’t work for the poor, for persons of color, or […]

Dear HCN, For the past year I’ve been part of a group including ranchers, environmentalists and scientists exploring ways to find common ground over public-lands policy in Arizona and the West. Early on we found our mantra by paraphrasing James Carville: It’s land fragmentation, stupid! But no matter how much progress we make, we keep […]

Dear HCN, “A treatise on columnist Alexander Cockburn,” (HCN, 5/11/98), seems to be Jon Margolis’ search for a journalistic Viagra. So envious is Margolis that he lashes out the gawky bewailment: “Cockburn has been abusing reality for decades …” That’s bad? I hope someone has, or will, say the same about me. Margolis’ gripes range […]