Letter to the editor

Regarding Avery McGaha’s wetland article (“A desert oasis, lost and found,” HCN, 12/21/15):  Cattails are considered a weed. They overtake ponds and wetlands, crowding out native species that are more beneficial. Instead of cattails, the cienega should have native willows and cottonwoods. Instead of messing around with logs and dams of his own making, A.T. […]

Being alone is no way to live, and so humans, being communal animals, evolved specific biological reactions to social threats. Those living on the periphery of their tribes faced increased risks of starvation, predation and early death. Today, feelings of isolation may result in nervous behavior and unhealthy physiological responses that cause the body to […]

I don’t doubt that a lot of opposition to immigration is due to nativism, as Forrest Whitman writes, but many favor lower immigration to stem overpopulation (“Western nativism has a rotten odor,” HCN, 12/21/15). U.S. population will exceed 400 million by 2050.  If we had maintained the immigration levels of the 1950s and ’60s, our […]

I was deeply saddened by the Dec. 7 cover’s display of animal cruelty.  The cover caption states that “neighbors helping neighbors” on branding day “is the cultural norm.” Unfortunately, inflicting pain appears to be a “cultural norm” in the cowboy culture also. I wonder how many of those “neighbors” subduing that poor animal would enjoy […]

The Nov. 23 stories “The city as sponge,” about Los Angeles possibly designing its way to water independence, the related story “The Revival of Mono Lake,” and the cover story, “Water Hustle,” brought back the July 16, 2015, TED Radio Hour: “Finite: Ideas about the Resources We Use and How to Make the Most of […]

I read with interest the article titled “Tenuous revival of Mono Lake” in the Nov. 23 issue. I was involved in the politics of that rescue, being friends with Rick Lehman, our congressman, and with other politicos who drove the legislation. Now that the lake is stabilized, I have tried to interest them in Walker […]

If words were bales of hay, feeding captive feral horses would be no problem (“Wild horses sent to slaughter,” HCN, 11/23/15). Presently, the government is the largest livestock caregiver in the U.S. Over 90,000 horses are either in lockups or on the Western ranges. In the meantime, one child dies every five seconds from malnutrition […]

Richard Reeves’ book Infamy: The Shocking Story of the Japanese American Internment in World War II is a tragic story of an immoral episode in American culture, and it’s simply not necessary to compound the tale through sensationalism and historical error. The title of Eric Sandstrom’s review in the Nov. 9 issue, “The Greatest Generation […]

Thank you for your Nov. 9 article on guerrilla trail work. As a former U.S. Forest Service trail crew foreman, trail contractor and now fire lookout, I’ve done my share of clearing “official” trails and trying to keep others open that have been neglected. Richard Coots’ spirit is laudable. I’ve also seen the results of […]

Judith Lewis Mernit’s Oct. 26 HCN cover story, “Clean Energy’s Dirty Secret,” seeks to paint the wind industry as a villain equal to the tobacco industry when it comes to the science related to their respective industries. The piece implies that my organization, the California Wind Energy Association, personally attacked a researcher and his work […]

Kudos to Elizabeth Shogren (“The Campaign Against Coal,” HCN, 11/9/15) for exposing a wider audience to the ongoing battles raging in Western states over the mining and burning of king coal. Shogren rightly points out that small local communities dependent on the mining and burning of coal — some of which I myself have lived […]

Jodi Peterson’s brief on timber salvaging’s negative impacts mentioned black-backed woodpeckers but omitted some essential facts (“Log on,” HCN, 11/9/15). This woodpecker is neither threatened nor endangered. With the huge acreages of dead timber now available in the Western U.S. and Canada, the bird has an overabundance of foraging opportunities, aka “snag forest habitat.” Current […]

“Clean Energy’s Dirty Secret,” though well-intentioned, grossly misinforms readers about wind energy’s impacts and ignores its many environmental benefits (HCN, 10/26/15). Contrary to the impression left by the story, wind farms are not a major source of bird mortality. North American wind turbine sites kill an estimated 134,000-230,000 small birds each year ­— only a […]

Within the “Fall board meeting” note in the Oct. 12 edition, you mention “150 HCN fans” who “sparked a lively discussion on how climate change, fire suppression and exurban development have encouraged repeated megafires in our region.” The premise behind the statement, i.e., that Western wildfires are getting larger and more intense, is not supported by […]

In Brian Calvert’s Oct. 26 essay, “Growing up with guns,” the accompanying photo and the context that it suggested led me to expect a far different conclusion. Yet, as I read on, I found that we largely agreed. His experiences, and his resulting observations, were much like mine. I long ago concluded that “we are […]

It seemed appropriate to receive and read HCN’s Oct. 26 issue on Saturday, Oct. 24 — officially designated as “United Nations Day.” I loved Elizabeth Wyatt’s crafty piece, “The trash without, and within” — as she writes: “ ‘Throwing away’ just may be the dominant fiction of American consciousness.” She hits close to the heart […]

For over a century, energy development on public lands has put coal, oil and gas extraction at odds with stewardship of wildlife, wildlands and recreational opportunities. As noted in your Oct. 26 piece “Clean Energy’s Dirty Secret,” the growth of clean energy development has similarly presented challenges for the West. Recognizing the lessons learned and pitfalls of […]

While he does not come right out and say it, Brian Calvert appears to advocate altering the Second Amendment to the Constitution in his opinion piece “Growing up with guns” (HCN, 10/26/05). To confuse the use of weapons used for hunting with guns used in the commission of violent crimes is a greater stretch than comparing […]

There are situations in which leash laws are appropriate on trails, but I encourage the Jackson Hole task force (“Heard around the West,” HCN, 10/12/15) and others to consider their effect on off-leash recreationists. Places off-leash recreationists can legally engage in their activity are often limited in number, accessibility and quality. For many (perhaps most) of […]

Overall, I felt that the Oct. 26 story “Clean Energy’s Dirty Secret” approached the issues in a fairly even-handed way. However, I wish the editors had done a better job with one significant issue. The author often conflates the wildlife harms caused by solar thermal power plants with those caused by solar photovoltaic plants in […]