I’m 35 and also cannot find backpacking companions my age (HCN, 7/21/14). Most friends my age are more interested in camping at the brewery or a music festival. All my backpacking buddies are pushing 60. Still, I can’t help but enjoy the thought that traffic on the trails is getting better and not worse. Bradley […]
Letter to the editor
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Polite excuses
After reading Quinn Read’s article “The Virtues of Old-School Car Camping” (HCN, 7/21/14), I was struck with a wonderful moment of reminiscing. It took me back to the days of family car camping in the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona and the Rockies in Colorado. We, like Quinn, would struggle to fall asleep before Dad’s snoring […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Shocked at suckers
Thanks to Ted Williams and HCN for the article “Suckers for Gold” (6/9/14). First, I was surprised that such an “enterprise” exists. Then, I was outraged at the ways these “miners” disturb riverbeds and fragile habitat for fish and other creatures. Finally, I was shocked to learn that my own state of Washington has not […]
Posted inAugust 4, 2014: Idaho's Sewer System
Short-sighted snowmen
Do recreational snowmobilers care enough about the future of their sport to lobby for global reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (“Snowmobiling for science,” HCN, 6/9/14)? Snowmelt is occurring earlier every year, and that is directly attributable to global warming. While snowmobilers are worrying about “large closures,” they ought to worry even more about shorter and […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
Farmers for clear water rule
I read your coverage of the proposed new clean water ruling by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with interest (“Muddy waters of the U.S.,” HCN, 6/23/14; “Is the Clean Water Act under attack?” hcn.org, 6/24/14), and wish to add a few sentiments to the mix. For more than 100 years, the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
Love that dirty river
Every year, I dutifully respond to those High Country News reader surveys in the fervent hope that you will devote more of your valuable real estate to urban-oriented stories about our region’s social injustices. Well, there is a Santa Claus, and he delivered a wonderful gift to me in the form of Daniel Person’s pitch-perfect “River of No Return” […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
Predatory Ugliness
Jonathan Thompson’s terrific piece about the payday loan business (“A pimp in the family,” HCN, 6/23/14) spotlights some of the ugliest elements of the financial services business. Predatory lenders have found a lucrative niche in the largely unregulated world that flourishes in poor communities with immediate cash needs – like Native American reservations. Indeed, as […]
Posted inJuly 21, 2014: On the Wild Edge
Support what you preserve
It’s nice to see more land set aside for conservation and our future children and grandchildren, but this must be accompanied by federal funds to support the infrastructure (“What the president can do right now for conservation,” HCN, 5/26/14). That means our dear leaders need to allocate enough money for people to monitor the parks, […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
A better way to save
High Country News has an ad stating, “Together, we can save a forest” (HCN, 4/14/14), encouraging subscribers to elect email over snail mail and suggesting this could save a forest. Ads like this perpetuate the myth that paper use is leading to the loss of forestland. This takes the spotlight off the real threats to […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
A false divide
Dan Baum’s recent article would have us believe that gun violence prevention is a deeply divided, polarized issue. It is not. The fringe of the gun-rights movement, who are a small proportion of gun owners, and their deep-pocketed backers in the NRA would like us to believe this narrative, because it foments fear and helps […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Diversity as cynical distraction
Like many in the National Park Service, as well as retirees, I think this elevation of diversity to one of the most important issues facing the agency is a cynical distraction from more serious issues like commercialization, invasive species and climate change (“Parks for All?” HCN, 5/12/14). No one is against diversity, but how serious […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Farmstead photo
Kudos to Michael Hudson for the spectacular image of the abandoned Kansas farmstead (“These were called the High Plains,” HCN, 5/26/14). I’d be pleased to have Julene Bair refer to me as “a grass man” and would be even more pleased if I had been there when Hudson took that sad and glorious photo. Ray […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
The catbird seat
Rick Bombaci hit many nails on the head in “The Big Nasty” (HCN, 5/26/14), but he missed a few. Before my horses and I got too old and lame to hit the mountain trails, I resorted to hanging a trash bag from my saddle horn to carry out the beer cans left by snowmobilers during the […]
Posted inJune 23, 2014: River of No Return
Wannabe gonzo drivel
The false-equivalence tagline ” ‘gun nuts’ on both sides of the debate,” plus the Hunter S. Thompson wannabe photo should have been warning enough, but I went ahead and read Dan Baum’s article (“The Great Gun-Rights Divide,” HCN 5/26/14). It didn’t fail to disappoint. While not nearly as amusing as Thompson’s gonzo journalism, it was […]
Posted inJune 9, 2014: Border Out of Control
Crazed ‘patriotism’
Concerning the Sagebrush Rebellion timeline, (“The BLM vs. Cliven Bundy, HCN, 5/12/14), et tu, High Country News? “After a tense standoff between armed militiamen and federal agents …” Somehow these bullying military-armed lawbreakers have convinced the media, including HCN, to associate them with the Second Amendment and the “well-regulated militia” delineated there. These confused and […]
Posted inJune 9, 2014: Border Out of Control
Federal generosity
With the U.S. District Court of Nevada giving Cliven Bundy 45 days to remove his cattle from federal grazing land, land the Bundy family had occupied for nearly six decades, it came to mind that Gen. O.O. Howard didn’t give the Nez Perce such a generous amount of time back in 1877. They had just 30 […]
Posted inJune 9, 2014: Border Out of Control
Inexhaustible supply
Regarding “Two-Wheel Revolution” (HCN, 4/28/14), I was amused by your comparison of Gallup to Santa Fe as to the prevalence of “small loan companies.” The problems in Gallup are symptoms of problems in Santa Fe: elite concentrations of wealth and unsustainable consumption. As Voltaire wrote hundreds of years ago: “The wealth of the rich is […]
Posted inJune 9, 2014: Border Out of Control
Parks deserve robust budgets
Thank you for your article on the national parks and cultural diversity (“Parks For All?” HCN, 5/12/14). However, it contained a critical error about the government shutdown and the Utah national parks. You wrote, “During last fall’s federal shutdown, states like Utah took over some national parks, fueling calls from some locals for permanent control.” […]
Posted inJune 9, 2014: Border Out of Control
Paying for conservation
Hunters and anglers have largely been footing the bill for wildlife and conservation (“Hunting for conservation dollars,” HCN, 5/12/14), yet we’re continually under attack by environmental and animal rights groups who have so far refused to assist in funding wildlife management (minus the rare exception of Defenders of Wildlife, which compensates ranchers for livestock killed […]
Posted inMay 26, 2014: The Great Gun Rights Divide
Best use for hayfields
We can argue about who owns the water, yet ultimately the West has a long legal history and an exact answer: We call them water rights for a reason (“What the hay?” HCN, 4/28/14). The owner of those rights – that personal property – should ultimately have the ability to sell the property to the […]