Letter to the editor

Dear HCN, The “Hunting: Get Used to it” essay by Jim Fergus (HCN, 1/22/96) was exquisite – but Fergus shouldn’t be so hasty to stereotype HCN’s readership. Today I am a card-carrying environmentalist, but I am farm/ranch raised and hunting/fishing educated. I cut both my baby teeth and wisdom teeth on Outdoor Life. I believe […]

Dear HCN, In “Unarmed but dangerous critics close in on hunting” (HCN, 12/11/95), a Sports Afield columnist quotes Henry David Thoreau in support of hunting. To finish the conveniently incomplete quote, “This was my answer with respect to those youths who were bent on this pursuit, trusting that they would soon outgrow it. No humane […]

Dear HCN, Jim Fergus could’ve just typed something like: “Stupid, citified yuppies just don’t understand hunting. They never will, and they shouldn’t even try because hunters don’t care what they think.” (HCN, 1/22/96). Perhaps what non-hunters don’t get is how shooting the life out of a living creature can be such a positive experience. But […]

APPLAUSE FOR SOME RANCHERS Dear HCN: I thought the only folks opposed to conservation easements were greedy land developers. Not so – it seems that reader Wano Urbonas of Durango has a “beef” with Jay Fetcher and other landowners who look for ways to keep family possessions in the family (HCN, 1/22/95). I’m definitely not […]

Dear HCN, Your article on massive tree thinning to make room for the return of ponderosa pine forests (Northern Arizona U. looks back, moves forward, 11/13/95) offers valuable insights to conservationists. The article’s claim that thinning is economically viable raises an interesting question, namely, viable for whom? Big mills have retooled to process the smaller […]

Dear HCN, Jon Christensen was prophetic when he wrote that the Forest Service would not replace Kevin Atchley with a “good old boy” (HCN, 10/30/95). (Christensen’s Great Basin story told of Atchley’s transfer within Nevada, following hostile incidents toward Forest Service personnel.) I’m living proof: the “new range con.” I’ve found if you deal with […]

Dear HCN, Mike Medberry’s report on big foundations, national conservation coalitions and grassroots conservation was thoughtful and respectful of the subject’s complexities (HCN, 10/16/95). The Pew Charitable Trusts was featured in Mike’s piece. Many conservationists are not wild about Pew. I have experience of Pew as an employee of a grantee and as steering committee […]

Dear HCN, I grew up with men; somehow, much to my mother’s disappointment, I ended up walking the fields with them instead of making pies in the kitchen. I shot the pheasant instead of staying in and stuffing the turkey. I spent weeks on the banks of rivers or the shores of lakes waiting for […]

Dear HCN, I am offended at the characterization of hunting as a sport; to me, it is serious business (HCN, 12/11/95). I have taken 25 large ungulates over the past 18 years, but I do not have any of their heads displayed on my wall. I hunt for meat, not for trophies, seeking the animal […]

Dear HCN, Your “Saving the Ranch” issue Nov. 27 really stunk. I guess I shouldn’t have expected an Aspen reporter to speak truthfully about Steamboat Springs. Your reporter states that “Nine out of 10 people surveyed in 1993 said they believe that ranch meadows and grasslands with grazing cows and horses enhance their lives.” And […]

Dear HCN, Your issue on forestry schools was rich in academic intrigue, the personalities involved and what they are arguing over (HCN, 11/13/95). I strongly urge you to present another special issue on what that argument is about: the ecology and economy of healthy forests. I also hope you will use the opportunity to teach […]

Dear HCN, Dan Dagget’s essay (-It’s unAmerican, or at best unWestern, but cooperation works,” HCN, 10/16/95)is a clean and tidy one-size-fits-all solution to the environmental crisis. Certainly cooperation has its place in the scheme of things. Yet many environmental problems are international in scope and interconnected in nature. Suggesting that cooperation is the only or […]

Dear HCN, The deal that Idaho’s Gov. Batt worked out with the DOE is a bad deal for Idaho and a bad deal for the rest of the West (HCN, 11/13/95). The pressure that Gov. Batt claimed to be feeling was coming mainly from Idaho’s congressional delegation and, I suspect, from his political funders. Without […]

Dear HCN, The take of Beltway green Paul Pritchard of the National Parks and Conservation Association on the national environmental movement is: “We feel like General Custer.” (-D.C. Green Power Brokers Look for New Home,” HCN, 11/13/95). An apt analogy, indeed – though hardly a grassroots, cross-cultural organizing sentiment. The genocidal Custer got what he […]

Dear HCN, It was fortunate that your 10/2/95 issue had in it both the essay by Dave Brown and a letter from William Dickinson. They allowed me to synthesize a new perspective on the effects of cattle grazing on riparian areas. It is now obvious that cattle are the victims of incredible bad luck. They […]

Dear HCN, I am quite upset about the selective quotes from me in the article about program cuts at the University of Washington by Kathie Durbin (HCN, 11/13/95). The manner in which my remarks were used makes it appear that the faculty and staff of the Center for Streamside Studies blame Weyerhaeuser Company for the […]

Dear HCN, Your Oct. 2 article about the jet noise in a Colorado wilderness made me realize that I might be able to help after fighting the jet noise from San Francisco Airport for 25 years. First, start by learning everything about the way the Federal Aviation Administration handles takeoffs and landings in every type […]

Dear HCN, Ganados del Valle is not an organization which “attacks reputations’ and smears them in our valley’s “red brown mud” (HCN, 10/16/95). Over the past five years we have had several opportunities to tell the story of the history of the lawsuit brought by the attorney general of New Mexico against the Sierra Club […]

Dear HCN, I was disappointed and extremely saddened after reading “In the heart of the New West, the sheep win one” (HCN, 10/16/95). Disappointed that with so many other environmental problems facing this country, the Sierra Club Foundation has chosen to pick on a small rural cooperative to the tune of $2.5 million. It seems […]

Dear HCN, I was delighted that Jon Christensen did an article on Elko County, Nev. (HCN, 10/30/95). I just wish he had done so while I was still living there. I worked as an engineer for one of the gold-mining companies in the area until I decided to leave after being informed that my political […]