Letter to the editor

A recent feature lauds the powers of the president to protect lands by declaring them national monuments (“Monument Man,” HCN, 5/25/15). Meanwhile, in a companion article discussing grazing and oil drilling, the author finds “little has changed on the ground” since Canyon of the Ancients National Monument received its designation. A second sidebar describes a […]

In his letter “High-Flyin’ Hypocrisy,” (HCN, 6/8/15) Robert Michael accuses Kathleen Dean Moore of hypocrisy for considering mankind’s destruction of the world because her plane uses the very fuel being produced by the horrors she observes on the ground beneath her. He might have a point, except for the fact that she never separates herself […]

A little clarification is needed to better understand the setting of “The Wetland Wars” (HCN, 5/11/15). The Los Angeles River did not flow continuously through the Ballona Wetlands previous to the calamitous flood of 1825. A flood that had occurred 10 years earlier caused the river to shift westward, away from the hundreds of square […]

Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi’s legislation to mandate use of local, county, state and tribal data in Endangered Species Act decisions (“Sagebrush bureaucracy,” HCN, 5/11/15) sounds like a reasonable idea, citizen science at its very grassroots. The more information that’s included, the better the decision, right? The devil, of course, is in the details. I have […]

In her May 11 “Writers on the Range,” Kathleen Dean Moore laments the view of the North Dakota oilfields at night from her jetliner window at 31,000 feet. And, admittedly, vistas with drilling rigs, pumpjacks and gas flares leave something to be desired, compared with vast sweeps of virgin prairie. The excellent article on Theodore […]

“The Wetland Wars” struck a chord with me. I went to Loyola Marymount University from 1960 to 1963. The campus was above and just to the east of Ballona Creek. In that era, it was known as “the creek.” After a long day, I often walked around the area to capture some of the tranquility […]

Reader Brandt Mannchen takes issue with rainwater harvesting as presented in a recent article (“Letters,” HCN, 5/25/15; “Tucson’s rain-catching revolution” HCN, 4/27/15)). He deplores local Tucson water expert Brent Cluff’s belief that “water harvesting could support unlimited growth.” I know of Brent Cluff but have never heard of and certainly do not share this opinion. […]

There is something missing from “Trade winds blow through the West” (HCN, 5/25/15).  There is much talk about poor Rifle and other communities suffering from depressed natural gas production, and the hopes that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will once again increase production and, therefore, jobs in the West. This is undoubtedly true. But what about the obvious […]

Thanks for doing an article on the Bisti Wilderness (“Strangers in a familiar land,” HCN, 4/13/15). It was a good one, and I like the quote, “We are all just visitors here.” An old Navajo lady, a member of a grazing committee not too far from Bisti, used to say, “We are all here on borrowed […]

“Checking in on Cliven Bundy” (HCN, 4/27/15)? Are you kidding me? The only checking in we need with him is from his cell, when he’s finally brought to justice for making a mockery of federal law. Mark De GregorioMasonville, Colorado This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Bundy and […]

Without using these exact words, editor Sarah Gilman refers to the changing baseline (“Knowledge, a wrecking ball,” HCN, 4/27/15). Each generation thinks that life began when its awareness began. The children of the generation before Sarah roved an empty mesa near Boulder and perhaps mourned its loss. As a young adult, I roamed the side canyons of Lake Powell and […]

Articles about this precious Southern California ecosystem are always welcome, and this one delves more deeply into the complexity of Ballona than the typical “this side versus that side” article, which is refreshing (“The Wetland Wars,” HCN, 5/11/15). However, what is still missing from the discussion is the realization that the lack of transparency and […]

“A crystal ball for the Pacific Northwest” (HCN, 4/27/15) gives us a good summary of what may happen to precipitation in the Pacific Northwest in coming years, but says little about what may happen to temperatures. However, the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute makes it clear: “Every global climate model used by the Intergovernmental Panel […]

It is very sad that a man of science, Brent Cluff, believes that “water harvesting could support unlimited growth.” In “Tucson’s rain-catching revolution” (HCN, 4/27/15), rainwater harvesting is touted as a way to conserve water. It is a step in the right direction, but only a step, and it has several negative impacts. First, it allows […]

“The West In 72 Hours” (HCN, 4/13/15), light-heartedly written, exposes a nationwide tragedy in progress. There is nothing humorous in the ongoing ruination of our national parks. It doesn’t matter whether the hordes of visitors are Asian, European or American. They are destroying the very thing they profess to love. I’ve lived in Zion Park’s […]

The April 13 issue includes a photo that shows a young woman standing in front of Old Faithful geyser on the dirt and off the constructed boardwalk (“On the road with America’s sightseers”). It is a well-publicized fact that it is illegal to be off trail at Old Faithful or, in fact, in any of […]

I grow tired of hearing news bites about people or industries “standing up to the government” regarding land use without accurate information (“Checking in on Cliven Bundy,” HCN, 4/27/15). Cliven Bundy is nothing but a mooch and a thief. The public lands are owned by every American citizen, and we pay to have government representatives […]

Articles and editorials about the threat to public access are springing up in outdoor and conservation magazines with regularity now (“Westerners need to stand up for public lands,” HCN, 4/27/15). Americans are beginning to get it: The threat is real. Do we want the European model, where private ownership of the woods and waters prevails, or do […]

“Plague on the Klamath” (HCN, 4/27/15) was good so far as it went. It did not, however, give readers a full view of salmon disease on the Klamath River, nor of water management and pollution issues related to disease outbreaks. Not mentioned, for example, is that most of the young salmon born in Klamath River […]

The boom/bust cycle happens quite often in history with different industries (“The Winter of Oil’s Discontent,” HCN, 3/16/15). For example, in the 1940s, ’50s and early ’60s, it was uranium. We had various oil boom/busts from the ’40s to the present. We had natural gas boom/busts, with the most recent one going from the ’90s […]