Letter to the editor

Dear HCN, My reaction to Rob White’s “Sacred Places’ (HCN, 3/7/94) was a bit different from Hannah Hinchman’s (HCN, 4/18/94). I felt White’s essay to be one of the most insightful I’ve ever read in HCN. Judging by Hinchman’s many fine points, I would guess that if she read “Sacred Places’ without prejudice she might […]

Dear HCN, Terri Martin of the National Parks and Conservation Association voices alarm about the RS 2477 road right-of-way loophole now being employed by wise-use groups to frustrate the public interest (-Other Voices’ HCN, 3/21/94). In the interest of truth, she should tell the whole story. Rather than pursue a compromise on the issue of […]

Dear HCN, Maria Mondragon-Valdez wrote in your March 7 issue about the contentious issue of who should own the 121-square-mile Taylor Ranch in southern Colorado. She questioned whether a corporation or state entity should be able to “dominate and exploit resources at the expense of a community which considers the landscape part of its traditional […]

Dear HCN, The problem with George Wuerthner’s comments in a recent issue (HCN, 3/24/94) is that while he appears to be correct in his criticism of the extractive industries, in reality he’s about 10 percent correct and 90 percent missing the point. Our choices lie not between urban subdivisions and traditional grazing. Nobody’s talking about […]

Dear HCN, I would like to make a technical point. Increasingly, people are quoting the quasi-statistic that “anywhere one has to talk acres per cow, rather than cows per acre, is no place to be grazing livestock.” Even the world’s most intensively managed irrigated pastures do not often support a stocking rate in excess of […]

Dear HCN, Rob White in his essay “Sacred Places’ (HCN, 3/7/94) offers no alternative to what he sees as the evil of “making” places sacred. He states that it’s wrong, spiritually. Then what is right? Self-imposed exile from all non-urban places? Purely scientific investigation, excising any spiritual “response’? Absolute secrecy and muteness about what may […]

Dear HCN, Kudos to HCN and writer Sherry Devlin for the timely piece on Western timber issues (-Timber companies export logs – and jobs – to Asia’) (HCN, 3/21/94). During research in 1988 for my book, Cut and Run: Saying Goodbye to the Last Great Forest in the West, I learned how successful the timber […]

Dear HCN, I read your paper with interest, amusement and sometimes disgust. First, I want to inform you that I am a 73-year-old cattleman as well as a staunch environmentalist. Despite your beliefs to the contrary, a man can be both and many are. I’m even in favor of the reintroduction of wolves. The majority […]

Dear HCN, I just noted your new policy of not running real estate ads and wanted to say that this was one of the features I really enjoy about HCN. Why not limit the wording in some way? Your readership is an excellent target audience for environmentally unique properties. Also, if they buy it, your […]

Dear HCN, It is hard to realize that less than 29,000 ranchers in the West can have such an unreasonable political influence over public lands. Some major industries have laid off more employees than the total number of ranchers in the West. We doubt that condominiums will ever replace ranches. The isolation, severe weather, lack […]

Dear HCN, As an environmentalist, I was surprised at Ed Marston’s conclusion in his recent HCN, essay (-How to turn lemonade into lemons,” March 21) that “the goal of environmentalism was never to achieve a cultural revolution.” Silly me. I thought I was part of a social movement with a goal of enacting fundamental social […]

Dear HCN, I don’t care much for Jeffrey St. Clair’s writing. This was my reaction to the first essay of his that I saw in your paper; and the feeling is only reinforced by his second essay (HCN, 3/21/94). Both pieces seek to validate accusations with such meaningless generalizations as “ecological cleansing” and “intellectual venereal […]

Dear HCN, Steve Stuebner’s article on the Idaho Training Range (HCN, 1/24/94, p. 5), a proposed Air Force bombing range that will turn approximately 3 million acres of southwest Idaho into a virtual battle zone, accurately reflects the stakes for Idaho’s environment. Environmentalists in other Western states ought to pay close attention to the Pentagon’s […]

Dear HCN, I had to read “Three mountain lions killed at Glacier” twice to believe it. “The risks to the residents were extraordinary,” a ranger is quoted as saying. Residents? Which residents? It sure did turn out to be risky for the lions. Since when are our national parks supposed to be safe suburbs for […]

Dear HCN: Please accept our thanks for the article on solid-waste management in rural areas (HCN, 3/7/94). It may well be the fairest treatment we have seen of these rules designed partly to keep today’s landfills from becoming tomorrow’s Superfund sites. One point, however, could have alarmed some small landfill operators. In discussing the Natural […]

Dear HCN, Jeffrey St. Clair complained in the last issue that no “abolitionists’ were included in the Colorado grazing reform working group. Of course they were excluded! That decision was deliberate. The sharing of goals is a necessary preliminary to any successful resolution of conflict, and the abolitionists declare outright that they don’t share the […]

Dear HCN, My friend Jeff St. Clair listed me as a “grazing abolitionist” in an op-ed piece published in the 3/21/94 issue of HCN. As a candidate for Commissioner of Public Lands in New Mexico, I feel I need to clarify my position on this subject. I am not opposed to public-land grazing, provided it […]

Dear HCN, After reading Ed Marston’s Comb Wash “A Stark Victory in Utah” editorial in the January issue of HCN, I am very disappointed. I am a long-time BLM employee but am not personally involved in Comb Wash. However, I know enough about the issue and BLM to know that your editorial is full of […]

Dear HCN, As retirees and industries flock to the West, many fear the loss of the region’s open spaces and wildlife habitat. Officials from extractive industries such as farming, ranching and timber capitalize on this fear, warning that if environmentalists and others who are demanding an end to subsidies are successful, subdivisions will proliferate as […]

Dear HCN, Yes, house hunting in Bozeman can be frustrating (as described in the Jan. 24 HCN, “Montana Town Puts Out the Unwelcome Mat”). But unlike others profiled in that story, I don’t exclusively blame footloose entrepreneurs, Californians or Hollywood stars for this and other growth-related problems. While not always to our liking, change is […]