Letter to the editor

Thank you, Tay Wiles, for your hard work explaining the complex and tortured nature of the ongoing saga of Cliven Bundy and his family (“Celebrity Scofflaw,” HCN, 4/30/18). There is no easy answer to what should happen next to address the continued trespass, or the potential copycats. Right now, Cliven and his sons feel more […]

Cliven Bundy is not a hero to many of us (“Celebrity Scofflaw,” HCN, 4/30/18). He is a crook. He has stolen public  resources like grass and water. He owes about a million and half dollars and continues his thievery. Who would call that a heroic thing? The government’s grazing fee is very cheap. A cattleman […]

It was sad to read about those who lost their lives attempting to climb Capitol Peak in 2017 (“Death in the Alpine,” HCN, 5/14/18). But one comment Peter Doro made was not correct: “You don’t expect a giant rock to be loose. You expect that if you grab something as big as your body, it’s […]

I was away from the mountains for the past two years with injuries (“Death in the Alpine,” HCN, 5/14/18). As a member of the 14ers.com site, I was dismayed to watch the number of inexperienced climbers with cavalier attitudes grow both on the site and in other social media. When I came to Colorado in […]

The possibility of commercial utilization is not an off-ramp for regulations restricting the importation of non-native species. There are many examples of this, including fishes that may be suitable for aquaculture, and animals that can be, or are, domesticated in other parts of the world. Your short article “Latest: Washington state bans fish farms” (HCN, […]

Regarding the King Cove road (“Alaska wilds lose out,” HCN, 3/19/18): People have died in the King Cove, Alaska, community because the weather precluded air access, and they could not do anything but wait. Unless you live in a remote location like this, you don’t have, in my opinion, standing to protest these folks getting […]

Jonathan Thompson points out an issue common to discussions concerning public-land management in the West (“Local hands on public lands,” HCN, 3/19/18). Some locals and sometimes large companies, including foreign business interests, have a “vested financial interest” in public-land management decisions because they have grazing leases, oil and gas leases, mining or timbering interests, outfitting […]

Mining damage isn’t the only concern for Bears Ears National Monument (“Local hands on public lands,” HCN, 3/19/18); it’s also about the tribes whose stories live there. Utah’s public lands are now a national sensation, but the way Bears Ears is being lumped into this larger attack on public lands doesn’t do the place justice. […]

Thank you for focusing on the Chaco Canyon area and the rapid pollution and industrialization of this internationally important area (“Drilling Chaco,” HCN, 3/5/18). I have watched this area closely for decades and have seen the incredible beauty of the area trashed by boom-and-bust oil development that scars the land permanently and pollutes the water […]

With the publication of “Desert, Divided” and “One nation, divisible” (HCN, 3/19/18), HCN demonstrated a commitment to tell the stories of the borderlands and to embrace the region as part of the West. The correspondents and photographers humanized the daily struggles of life there, sketching portraits of communities that reveal the complexity of the border. […]

Nature, space and human communities exist on a continuous plane — you can’t slice through it without significant collateral damage (“Desert, Divided,” HCN, 3/19/18). Unfortunately, a large number of Americans seem quite happy to accept those consequences (from a comfortable distance), believing that the result will be communities with fewer brown people or “foreigners.” My […]

I have owned a ranch property in Arizona a stone’s throw from Mexico for nearly 40 years. I was slack-jawed reading Brian Calvert’s latest dark editor’s note (“The great divider,” HCN, 3/19/18), this time regarding the illusion of a borderland with no border. Perhaps Mr. Calvert should visit more of what he wants to unite because […]

A letter to the editor by Piers Strailey (“State of Dysfunction,” HCN, 3/5/18) was packed with errors about the state of Jefferson. As the co-chairman of the Plumas County State of Jefferson Committee, I will correct the record. Mark Baird never pressured the board of supervisors, as Strailey claims. Baird was asked by residents of […]

This piece reflects my own experiences living in Mexico and visiting both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border (“Desert, Divided” HCN, 3/19/18). You uncover what is undoubtedly an uncomfortable reality for many to face: A wall is not going to stop human migration. It is an imaginative piece of “security theater,” but a wall doesn’t address […]

In response to Brian Calvert’s editor’s note, “Science Matters,” (HCN, 2/19/18), in which he claims to get letters asking him to “stop disparaging the president,” I say: “Disparaging words needed, more than ever.” Anyone who reads and supports HCN and is offended by disparagement of the president does not, in my opinion, support the goal […]

As a holistic wellness counselor, I can relate a little to a parent’s desire to make his or her own decisions about a child’s health (“Idaho protects the rights of faith healers. Should it?” HCN, 2/19/18). But how, in any sane universe, is it not child abuse to withhold medical care and allow a child […]

Like many such articles, this was one-sided and glossed over important issues regarding state control of our bodies and families (HCN, 2/19/18). I was baptized into the First Church of Christ, Scientist at the age of three days, and while I no longer attend church regularly, my faith is an important part of my life, […]

Since President Donald Trump’s swearing in, the environment seems to be particularly under attack. The public has become less and less informed about government plans for our public lands, which has resulted in our being unable to comment on environmental issues. If large energy corporations can take thousands of acres of public land to drill […]

Thank you, Jonathan Thompson, for your great writing and for exposing “The Big Sell-Out” (HCN, 2/19/18). The “orphaned wells” story in the same issue could have just as easily been titled, “How the ‘Third Man’ always gets the shaft.” The Koch brothers’ American Legislative Exchange Council, as one dark-money example, writes legislation and buys legislators […]

Certain types of groundwater issues are often complicated by our antiquated water laws and regulatory framework (“Fight over household wells complicates rural growing pains,” HCN, 2/8/18). To the hydrogeologist, and when it comes to real conditions on and in the ground, there is no distinction between surface and groundwater. Groundwater feeds streams and streams feed […]