Kudos to Lake County, Ore., for its support and promotion of renewable energy (HCN, 3/21/11). They clearly have a joint vision, a marketing strategy, and are working together in a collaborative manner. Oregon has become a national leader in the field of clean energy and sustainability. Even with tight budgets, a myriad of agencies continue […]
Letter to the editor
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Air quality and equity
Lee van der Voo’s article on renewable energy development in Lakeview, Ore., was well-balanced and informative (HCN, 3/21/11). There is one energy-related issue in Lakeview that was not mentioned, however: air quality. As in most of the rural West, many folks in and around Lakeview use wood heat. But the area is prone to winter […]
Posted inApril 18, 2011: Muddy Waters
Consumers feel Big Beef’s squeeze, too
Thank you for covering the harm to Western ranchers from consolidation in the cattle industry (HCN, 3/21/11). It’s worth adding that this trend has terrible consequences for consumers as well. Since four corporations control 80 percent of the beef slaughtered in the U.S., in addition to paying ranchers poorly, those companies can charge consumers higher […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
Complexities tackled
The Alaska predator control issue was an excellent one (HCN, 2/21/11). It offered information that I likely wouldn’t come across in the newspapers or journals I read — about the possible relationship between increasing salmon runs and declining ungulate populations, for example. It tackled complex matters in a way this non-wildlife biologist could grasp. And […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
Hook-and-bullet journalism
The scientific bankruptcy of hook-and-bullet journalism by “outdoor” writers was on display in Craig Medred’s essay, “How my thoughts on wolves have changed” (HCN, 2/21/11). In his defense of the lethal manipulation of wolf populations, Medred uses the word “artificial” only once: to describe an “artificially high” wolf population resulting from “recent high salmon runs.” […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
Who’s squeezing whom?
Craig Medred’s recent article on Alaska’s wolf dilemma raises some valid points (HCN, 2/21/11). Yes, wolves are carnivorous predators that can present a danger to humans. But it is worthwhile to consider why wolf attacks are becoming more common. One must ask whose territory is being invaded and squeezed into ever decreasing parameters. As biologist […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
The rules of intrusion
I have enjoyed reading HCN and Craig Childs’ writing over the years — until now (HCN, 2/21/11). As a high school librarian in Kayenta, Ariz., on the Navajo Nation, I often reach for an issue of HCN when a student isn’t reading. Students are proud to see tribal topics being covered and discussed in such […]
Posted inMarch 21, 2011: Big Beef
Kudos, times two
Thanks for two superb articles: Craig Childs’ essay, “Ghosts, walking,” and Jim Stiles’ opinion piece, “Words that reverberate, words of hate” (HCN, 2/21/11). The former elegantly evokes the emotions canyon country kindles, while Stiles reminds us that it takes two poles to create polarization. We all need to be able to sit in between and […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2011: High Tension
Bigger isn’t always better
The Bureau of Land Management’s Ray Brady says “there is no way a state like California is going to meet its goal of generating 33 percent of its electricity from renewable sources without utility-scale projects (HCN, 2/7/2011).” From my experience, this just isn’t true, and I’m getting tired of seeing it become a mantra. Since […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2011: High Tension
Petroleum High: good or evil?
I appreciated the HCN article on the Taft Oil Technology Academy, even though the tone seemed to “warn” of indoctrination rather than celebrate a creative and effective educational strategy (HCN, 2/7/11). As a past elementary and high school teacher and school counselor, I know of many reliable sources and studies that indicate that the majority […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2011: High Tension
Educate on!
I graduated from Greenville High School in 1997, and I wish the natural resources program had been offered back then (HCN, 2/7/11). We need more of this type of education in our schools — and we need it soon. The more we get kids involved in caring for and studying natural resources, the brighter the […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2011: High Tension
A rose by any other name …
I’m curious as to why HCN‘s editors printed Craig Childs’ ghostwalking essay (HCN, 2/21/2011). By his own admission, Mr. Childs’ escapade took place in an “off-limits” area, where access was permitted “as long as nobody sees you.” Deliberately entering it was trespassing, pure and simple. Romanticizing Mr. Childs’ blatant disregard for the rights of others […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2011: High Tension
Predator control’s unsustainable roots
Tracy Ross’ story was a good first look at the politics of predator control (HCN, 2/21/2011). One thing this article missed, however, is the fact that politics also drives the overexploitation of moose and caribou by the hunting industry. Game managers are under intense pressure to allow unsustainable harvests. Add to the mix a for-profit […]
Posted inMarch 7, 2011: High Tension
More hunters, more dollars
As an avid hunter and wildlife enthusiast, I read your recent feature on Alaska’s predator control program with keen interest (HCN, 2/21/2011). Surprisingly, neither writer seems to have grasped the dirty little secret that underlies modern day wildlife management: It’s not about wildlife, it’s about hunter opportunity. Put simply, anything that negatively impacts huntable populations […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Evolution not revolution
I appreciate your highlighting the Bureau of Land Management’s efforts to invigorate its National Landscape Conservation System (HCN, 12/20/10). After 10 years, there have certainly been mixed results, as you pointed out in your reference to the Canyon of the Ancients National Monument and its fluid mineral leasing program. But I think it’s important to […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Putting the ‘cow’ back in ‘cow-town’
Thank you so much for the excellent article on poultry slaughterhouses and the local food movement (HCN, 1/24/11). In Denver, Colo., we are trying to remove the disincentives to backyard agriculture that the city and county adopted several decades ago when they successfully transformed Denver from a cow town into a culture-rich city. Now that […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Political animals
In a recent op-ed, Denver Bryan, a self-described “hunter, conservationist, and also a supporter of wolves taking their rightful place in the West,” fell in step with the backlash politics of Western wildlife policy. (See Denver Bryan’s Writers on the Range opinion piece in fullhttp://country-survey-collabs.info/wotr/yes-to-wolves-but-not-so-many.) He began by declaring that legitimate conservation groups are trying […]
Posted inFebruary 21, 2011: Palin, politics, and predator control
Salmon got your tongue?
Judith Lewis Mernit’s “Obama and the West” was strangely silent on the administration’s track record on Northwest salmon (HCN, 2/7/11). Maybe that’s because it doesn’t fit neatly into the theme of “slow but steady progress.” Columbia Basin salmon — and the communities that rely on them — have suffered mightily since the nation’s first salmon […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Arrogant irrigators
“California Dreamin’ ” provided a good overview of the water issues in the San Francisco Bay-Delta region of California (HCN, 12/20/10). However, additional information on the Westlands Water District would have made the article even better. Westlands is comprised mostly of large family or corporate-owned farms. They are one of the primary beneficiaries of the […]
Posted inFebruary 7, 2011: Obama and the West
Not-so-small losses
The Delta issue is a complicated topic, and one with far-ranging impacts (HCN, 12/20/10). But the writer missed the following key point: Though the hundreds of millions of dollars that farmers lost last year because of water cutbacks are a tiny fraction of California’s $1.74 trillion economy, they hit hard locally. California’s loss in productivity […]