Your article on the invasive Tasmanian blue gum on the California coast was well-written and carefully researched (“Beauty or Beast?” HCN, 12/23/13). However, it fell into a common journalistic trap: “A says this; on the other hand, B says this.” This journalistic “fairness” doesn’t illuminate the subject. I am smitten by the genus Eucalyptus. I traveled to Australia in […]
Letter to the editor
Posted inFebruary 3, 2014: The Hanford Whistleblowers
Tax carbon, save trees
Thanks for the excellent research and report on “The Tree Coroners” (HCN, 12/9/13). We cannot continue to base our energy policies on fairy tales. It is time to put a carbon tax on oil, coal and natural gas to gradually reduce investment in these dangerous, polluting fuels. With revenue from the tax returned to households, […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
Moving words and sacred salmon
Ray Ring’s article on the Alaska salmon ecosystem was the most moving thing I’ve ever read in HCN (“Ecosystems 101,” HCN, 11/25/13). I worked on a commercial salmon-fishing boat in Alaska one summer and have since considered these species to be absolutely sacred. It seems developers always have a price tag to put on the […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
Not all kayakers oppose limitations
As an avid kayaker in Grand Teton National Park, I was surprised to see it lumped with Yellowstone in “Forbidden waters” (HCN, 11/11/13). Grand Teton does not have a “blanket ban” on kayaking. To the contrary, 36.6 miles of the Snake River in the John D. Rockefeller Memorial Parkway and Grand Teton National Park are […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
Outlaws on the river
There are excellent reasons why paddling is not permitted in most streams in Yellowstone (“Forbidden waters,” HCN, 11/11/13). Many streams meander through large meadows replete with grazing bison and elk. Paddlers would not only disrupt wildlife feeding along the steams, but the visual pollution caused by a parade of boats would spoil the magnificent scenes visitors presently enjoy. As […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
Studying – and saving – ecosystems
“Ecosystems 101” was full of exceptional details (HCN, 11/25/13). It is quite true that long-term field monitoring has until recently been the hardest research to keep funded. Thirty consecutive field seasons on glaciers in the North Cascades – which feed less-than-pristine salmon streams – and the ongoing but not particularly successful salmon restoration programs indicate […]
Posted inDecember 23, 2013: Beauty or Beast
The true story of the Apaches
In the article on the efforts of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe to build a casino in southwestern New Mexico, Jeff Haozous is quoted as saying that there were no remnant populations of Chiricahua or Warm Springs Apaches left in southwestern New Mexico after Geronimo’s surrender in 1886 (“Whose Apache Homelands?” HCN, 10/14/13). This statement […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
A broader view on secession
As a Vermonter who lived out West for 10 years in my 20s, I have been a loyal High Country News subscriber since 1992, and was pleased to read Krista Langlois’ fine article about secession (“Breaking up is hard to do,” HCN, 11/11/13). I would like to offer a few additional observations. 1. Secession is […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
It’s time to get all the lead out
Kudos to the California Legislature for doing the obvious, and banning lead bullets for hunting (“The Latest: Lead bullets,” HCN, 11/11/13). Here’s hoping other states will soon follow suit, NRA paranoia notwithstanding. It’s worth noting that only one Republican legislator voted for the bill on either the Senate or Assembly floor. Shouldn’t environmental protection be […]
Posted inDecember 9, 2013: The Tree Coroners
Unmechanized wilderness
In his essay about racing his BMW on the track in eastern Colorado, Daniel Brigham reinforces the old myth that the wilderness is only for men, only for those with “a certain amount of grit,” and, worst, only for those with access to an expensive, powerful machine (“Mechanized wilderness,” HCN, 11/11/13). The sensations he describes […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
The tyranny of standardized tests
My wife and I taught school on the Venetie Indian Reservation in Alaska for eight years (“Cutting Class,” HCN, 10/28/13). Arctic Village and Venetie are several hundred miles from the nearest road above the Arctic Circle. Our Athabaskan students were enthusiastic learners. The school provided a place to learn all the typical school subjects like […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
Witness to the floods
As a working geologist, I am used to assessing the land, considering the flow of fluid and mass. However, it is one thing to see it after the fact in a rocky outcrop or rolling topography, and quite another to experience it firsthand (“The flood-prone Front Range,” HCN, 10/14/13). I was camping that fateful […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
A redneck hippie in search of common ground
Being a self-proclaimed “redneck hippie” and/or “gun-toting liberal,” I really appreciated Brendan Buzzard’s essay (“The lines that bind us,” HCN, 10/14/13). As Buzzard argues, we do need to remember to be human first and treat each other with the respect that all humans deserve. The judgments that are made based on the vehicle a person […]
Posted inNovember 25, 2013: Ecosystems 101
Beyond the bright lights
It’s hard to believe but, somehow, whenever I read about Native Americans and casinos in High Country News, I always hear only about the statistics citing the amazing financial boon created by these tributes to modern-day Babylon (“Whose Apache Homelands?” HCN, 10/14/13). Never do I hear but a passing reference to the damage inflicted on individual […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
An unfair portrait of decline
I was shocked to see a photo of an old motel here in Deming that has been closed for quite some time in a recent issue. It gave the impression that we are approaching ghost town status. We are 17 miles west of Akela Flats, the proposed site of the Apache Homelands Casino, the subject […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Political theater – with consequences
Suspending regulations? A review of irrational red tape? Boards of experts being replaced by political appointees (“A groundwater legacy on the rocks,” HCN, 10/14/13)? The Republican governor of Indiana used the exact same rhetoric as New Mexico’s governor, and called for the review of environmental regulations by folks with little expertise. These sorts of moves […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
Regret and hope
Thanks very much for M. John Fayhee’s story, “Whose Apache Homelands?” (HCN, 10/14/13). What a sad history – doubly so because it’s forgotten and unknown by so many of us, just like nearly all Native American history in the United States. It’s good to know that there are possibilities for moving forward, that some still […]
Posted inNovember 11, 2013: Cosmic Prospecting
The tyranny of technology
The following comment was posted in response to Katie Mast’s Oct. 28 blog, “New satellite technology to detect wildfires an acre in size,” covering advances in remote sensing that could help managers plan and execute firefighting efforts. This sounds great until you consider that advances in technology have helped create the huge wildfires we’re now […]
Posted inOctober 28, 2013: Lifeblood of the Delta
HCN’s Coverage of the Federal Shutdown
The following comments were posted in response to Jonathan Thompson’s blog, “The shutdown hits the West harder.” Thompson considered the region’s high percentage of federal employees and uninsured. It’s not just feds who are furloughedThank you for pointing out that the furloughed employees are not all in Washington, D.C., and are not all “federal” employees. […]
Posted inOctober 14, 2013: The New Geronimo?
Gimpy’s lessons
I found Ana Maria Spagna’s essay, “The story of Gimpy” touching and thought-provoking (HCN, 9/2/13). Beyond evoking the compelling image of the black bear left incapable of foraging by a gunshot wound, Spagna addresses human compassion toward animals, concluding, “We’re all connected and we owe our fellow creatures something.” It is essential that HCN continue […]