Letter to the editor

LoMonaco’s feature article is why HCN is one of only two publications that I loyally subscribe to. LoMonaco’s in-depth reporting is an example of excellent journalism. She unsnarls a monumentally complicated issue and makes it interesting and understandable, if not fathomable, to a general reader like me. Not many journalists go to as much trouble […]

I never understood how we have planning commissions and they let developers build in forested areas without clearing fire-safe areas around developments (“Smoke and mirrors,” HCN, 9/1/14). People that build like this should have to pay an exorbitant amount for fire insurance. Same goes for building in the river bottom and on avalanche terrain. The […]

As a longtime supporter of High Country News, I was very disappointed that you chose to publish the biased and unsubstantiated “Lost in the Woods” by Claudine LoMonaco (HCN, 9/1/14). LoMonaco uses clever buzzwords — “slick slide show and earnest manner,” “bright blue eyes,” “dysfunctional and ineffective,” “historical vendettas, personal grudges and political connections,” just to quote […]

I believe it is important to consider the term “consumptive water use” in this context (“How much water goes into your food?” HCN, 4/18/14). This short piece by Sarah Tory provides some insightful information, but perhaps casts a shadow on an industry that constantly must explain and defend itself, often to no avail. Irrigated agriculture […]

Richard Manning’s “Idaho’s Sewer System” (HCN, 8/4/14) is the perfect sequel to Marc Reisner’s Cadillac Desert. Our hell-bent determination to dam every river in the West, even in high-desert landscapes where no one previously imagined farming, was simply the result of hubris. We did it because we could! Now, Big Ag, not content with reaping the rewards […]

Your graphic story on the Snake River (HCN, 8/4/14) provides a chilling overview of the impacts of industrial agriculture on one of America’s most important river systems. While well written, Manning’s article left me wondering whether the goal was to inform or inflame. The dominant ag systems in southern Idaho are surely not sustainable in […]

My wife and I both voted for the five-year moratorium on fracking in Fort Collins, Colorado, which was subsequently, disappointingly, overturned by the Colorado court system. We have watched as this issue has evolved, and we come down on the side of Jared Polis, a Democrat whose district includes Fort Collins (“Fracking politicians,” HCN, 4/18/14). The old-fashioned […]

Normally, I find your articles balanced and productive, often with suggestions for solutions and remedies. This one was simply a Border Patrol-bashing article (“Border Out of Control,” HCN, 6/9/14). The problems for the desert, its environment and the wildlife certainly were well documented, which is a good thing. But Ray Ring offers absolutely no solutions […]

Your wilderness issue (HCN, 7/21/14) was waiting for me on the day I returned from my own five-day reverie in Oregon’s Three Sisters Wilderness. I went on this trip to contemplate life and salute all who had a hand in creating the Wilderness Act 50 years ago. First, Christopher Ketcham’s article, “The Death of Backpacking,” gave me […]

Sarah Jane Keller’s speculation on what the Endangered Species Act could do for animals facing climate pressure reveals a maddeningly narrow scope of political will among lawmakers and judges (“A new climate for wolverine protection,” HCN, 8/4/14). If science can give us projections of future threats to species — and it can — why wouldn’t […]

Thank you for such thought-provoking articles, especially “Roads Scholar” (HCN, 8/4/14). I traveled from Ronan, Montana, to Missoula, Montana, every day to work and soon realized how valuable those animal-safety crossings would be. Then I got to see them being built. The amount and types of road kill were very dramatically reduced, thus saving lives […]

The stunningly beautiful photographs on HCN’s Aug. 4 cover and illustrating “Idaho’s Sewer System” effectively neutralize the incisive messages in Richard Manning’s well-researched article. I bet any Idaho Big Ag exec would be proud to display any one of these on a corporate waiting room wall. After all, do not these crystalline-sharp, color-saturated views convey the […]