Letter to the editor

I thought “Uncertain water supply” (June 2021) was a deeply engaging and illuminating piece of regional journalism. It is clear that a lot of effort was invested in the research and reporting of the article’s subject, and it is very much reflected in the writing. It is a great example of the kind of investigative […]

It is with a bit of remorse that I have to tell you that I will not be renewing my subscription this fall, thus ending my continuous subscription of 38 years. While I understand some of the journalism changes you have made, I find myself reading fewer articles in High Country News. I regret the […]

It was with great interest that I read the June issue of HCN, especially the article about the Salmon-Challis National Forest (“The Fire Next Time”). We lived there for eight and a half years (’77 to ’85), when I worked as a range specialist for the Bureau of Land Management for four-plus years and then […]

Thank you for another excellent issue, and especially Claire Thompson’s book review (“The wisdom of trees,” June 2021). As a retired national park ranger-naturalist, with two forestry degrees, I’m painfully aware of the split within the forestry community. Trees are finally getting some recognition, and not just as homes for the cute fuzzy aboveground beasts […]

Thanks for Sarah Tory’s story on Phoenix’s water-depletion myopia, “Uncertain water supply” (June 2021). Tory did a great job of summarizing the history comprehensively, yet comprehensibly. That’s talent. I live in Phoenix and fear for the future. Phoenix is built out, but the main industry, just beyond Phoenix’s borders, remains housing development, even though the […]

I read with great interest the June 2021 article, “The Fire Next Time” by Carl Segerstrom. Similar events have occurred on the national forests and grasslands in Texas. The Forest Service everywhere is trying to avoid doing required environmental analysis. This is wrong, illegal, and the agency knows this. Megafires are not stopped by thinning, prescribed […]

I’ve been an on-and-off subscriber and occasional contributor to High Country News for so many years I’ve lost track — roughly 25. I just received the June issue, along with a sticker saying it is my last one and that I need to renew. I opened it to read your inaugural Editor’s Note (by Editor-in-Chief […]

Your efforts bring me such a tingly kind of joy. Every issue is out of the park! You are the mythical exceptional American. Thanks. Jon HermanRoslyn, Washington This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Exceptional.

When I first subscribed to your magazine, I was ready to put on my boots to explore Colorado and adjacent states and write to Washington, D.C., regarding matters pertaining to wilderness. As time has gone by, your magazine has gone so far afield from your original purpose that I no longer agree with your mission. […]

I’ve been reading High Country News since I fought fires in Wyoming in 1977. HCN looks better than ever, with great photos of the Atascosa and its plant life — as well as the LA River (both May 2021), and your articles are as smart as ever and more wide-ranging (i.e., culturally diverse). Keep it […]

I just read “The Mountain Islands in the Desert Sea” (May 2021). It’s well-written and has nice photos, but the theme is grossly exaggerated. Sycamore Canyon is one of the best-documented local areas in Arizona: Botanists have visited and collected there for a century or so. In the SEINet database, there are 3,665 records of […]

In the publisher’s note in the May issue, you state that you “cover the West’s thorniest issues and gravitate without hesitation toward difficult conversations.” I’d like to suggest that this was true in the past, but it’s not always true today. You’ve made it clear that some of the major changes you’ve made over the past […]

Thank you for the excellent article about James Plymell (“Did James Plymell need to die?” March 2021). I am so deeply moved that you wrote this story. I found it very upsetting myself and wrote a little piece for the local newspaper. To see that someone else took up the story makes me feel not […]

Kudos to the citizens of McCall, Idaho, for pushing back on the development swap (“Growing pains,” April 2021). We have already lost more than half our wildlife in the past few decades, and one of the many ways we’re killing them is by developing more and more of their habitat to accommodate our continuous population […]

Miles W. Griffis makes good points about the unintended consequences of the changes in river management in Los Angeles that will further displace the displaced (“The invisible anglers of the Los Angeles River,” May 2021). The push-pull of water management in LA that seeks to control, or eliminate, residential/urban runoff should also be explored. Other […]

The possibility of restoring rail passenger service to the former Northern Pacific line in Montana has remained a dream for over 40 years (“Montana counties band together to reinvigorate passenger rail,” May 2021). I’m not saying it couldn’t be done, but the logistical challenges to making it a reality have multiplied in the four decades […]

I found the article about the Chinook Indian Nation interesting and enlightening (“Unrecognized,” April 2021). I totally sympathize. We were thrown off our land 200 years ago, and we’re still trying to get it back. Of course, the usurpers claim it’s their land, but not only did they not even exist when we inhabited the […]

I don’t think the headline “Americans go on a gun-buying frenzy” (May 2021) is accurate. About 15% of Americans (best estimate is 25-35 million) own all the guns, with each owner holding an average of five. Most Americans neither buy nor use guns. Rusty Austin Rancho Mirage, California This article appeared in the print edition […]

I have read Alex Trimble Young’s review of  Let Me Tell You What I Mean twice now  (“Finding meaning on Joan Didion’s frontier,” February 2021) and cannot find any relevance to the usual subject matter of High Country News, which in itself has diverged so much from the original news information of the West. Thanks […]

I write in appreciation of Jessica Kutz’s piece about the end of the Navajo Generating Station and the Navajo Nation’s struggle for control of its energy (“Life After Coal,” February 2021). I really enjoyed the calm, in-depth exploration of the whole story. It has strong resonances here in Australia, where Indigenous peoples have nothing like […]