Terray Sylvester’s Uncommon Westerner profile of the legendary Harold Klieforth alludes only obliquely to Dr. Klieforth’s contributions to the meteorology of mountain lee waves, and the awe-inspiring Sierra wave in particular (HCN, 4/27/09). Dr. Klieforth’s knowledge of the airflow over the Sierra Nevada is unequalled, both from a lifetime of research and from personal experience […]
Letter to the editor
Posted inMay 4, 2009: Salmon Salvation
Salmon (apolitical) science
Not only did Steve Hawley’s article “Columbia Basin (Political) Science” include factual errors and omit balancing views, but it also missed dramatic, positive changes surrounding Northwest salmon protection in recent years (HCN, 4/13/09). States, tribes and federal agencies that once stood on different sides now stand together behind the region’s new salmon strategy. Consider the […]
Posted inMay 4, 2009: Salmon Salvation
Ski in, ski out, make money
Rachel Walker’s story “Go Sell it On the Mountain” about Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s proposed expansion onto Snodgrass Mountain totally missed the point (HCN, 4/13/09). Colorado’s ski areas have gained approval for dozens of terrain expansions by claiming that more terrain would attract more skiers who would spend more money and boost local economies. However, […]
Posted inMay 4, 2009: Salmon Salvation
Swindle-ition vistas
Proposing “smart growth” for a city as bloated as Phoenix makes no more sense than a doctor prescribing smart weight gain for a morbidly obese patient (HCN, 4/27/09). One might as well advocate socially conscious prostitution or ethical money laundering. Oxymoronic or not, a shuck is a shuck. The cabal of promoters, land agents, politicians, […]
Posted inApril 27, 2009: Got warriors?
Land of contradiction and mystery
I spent three summers on a research project in Wyoming’s Red Desert, capturing, marking and recapturing prairie falcons (HCN, 4/13/09). The place is heaven for desert raptors; we monitored over 70 nests. The productivity of this ecosystem, in terms of biomass, is deceiving. In order to support so many predators, there must be vast amounts […]
Posted inApril 27, 2009: Got warriors?
Let’s paint Wal-Marts
I was inspired by the report on public art in Salt Lake City (“Breaking Down Walls, With Art”), but have to ask, does not the medium — structures about to be demolished — reinforce the notion, at least subliminally, that art is worthless (HCN, 3/16 & 3/30/09)? So much of our everyday living environment is […]
Posted inApril 27, 2009: Got warriors?
The mythic Westerner
Your latest issue on “great ideas” from the West contained some instances of historical revisionism (HCN, 3/16 & 3/30/09). For one thing, far from having to “scratch out a living … competing against the likes of saber-toothed tigers, cave bears, dire wolves, mastodons, woolly mammoths and giant beavers,” the evidence suggests that “early Westerners” actually […]
Posted inApril 27, 2009: Got warriors?
A shortage of leadership, not water
Jonathan Parkinson does not understand water management or economics (HCN, 4/13/09). It is more cost-effective to efficiently use the available resource than to develop more expensive new supplies. Urban water use is double what is necessary to maintain our lifestyle. Why? Wasteful practices and inefficient fixtures. Agricultural use is double what is needed to provide […]
Posted inApril 27, 2009: Got warriors?
Conservation before compromise
Jonathan Parkinson’s “Compromise is better than nothing” is long on provocation and short on facts (HCN, 4/13/09). He writes, “You can’t conserve your way out of a drought.” A good sound bite, but it’s flat wrong. In fact, Southern California did conserve its way out of a drought in the late ’80s and early ’90s. […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Golly, nukes for everybody!
The “innovative” proposal for many small “pocket” nuclear reactors sounds like the gee-whiz propaganda from the 1950s that every modern family would own a personal atomic car and reactors would produce power “too cheap to meter” (HCN, 3/16 & 3/30/09). In reality, it is an attempt to greenwash a failed technology. One lesson I have […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
More than you think?
How much water is left in the Colorado River to develop? Few questions are as complex — or as important to Colorado and its Western Slope. Matt Jenkins’ recent article, “How Low Will It Go” contains a pair of mischaracterizations that need to be corrected (HCN, 3/02/09). First, the implication that the Colorado Water Conservation […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
Apparently Schwarzenegger wouldn’t agree
I found it interesting that “Tarp Nation” followed so closely on the heels of your article about Amtrak (HCN, 3/16 & 3/30/09). I often ride the Denver-Sacramento and Bakersfield-Sacramento routes when visiting family. Whenever the train enters the outskirts of any sizeable town, observant riders can see slum settlements at regular intervals along the tracks, […]
Posted inApril 13, 2009: The Desert That Breaks Annie Proulx’s Heart
“The officially sanctioned helpless”
Your story “Tarp Nation” seems to condone living in squalor, while trying to convince the reader that the plucky residents of these communities are creative, self-reliant and just happen to suffer because of the government’s harshness, the mainstream’s condemnation and society’s refusal to embrace the positive potential of this new social movement, “informal urbanism” (HCN, […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
Share the tracks
Our railways are the only transportation systems where both the movable equipment and the track infrastructure are owned by the same company (HCN, 2/02/09). In all other haulage systems, the “tracks” are shared by competing companies. Look at the highways, airways and waterways. Thus, individual railways have an advantage, because they do not have to […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
Tough choices
The Feb. 16 issue manages to spotlight the “I want”/”I don’t want” schizophrenia of many who claim to love the environment. First, the article “Wind setbacks”: How can some of you look in the mirror after expressing rabid support for alternative energy sources like wind, if you insist that the turbines that generate the energy […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
Scattered to the winds
I am one of the residents of the San Miguel valley in New Mexico where the company Invenergy is looking into locating industrial-size turbines (HCN, 2/16/09). My neighbors and I have been researching the impact of the wind industry, and many of us are concluding that in the push for renewables, it is preferable to […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
The half-life curse
Hannah Nordhaus’ excellent exposé “The Half-life of Memory” is troubling on many fronts, but none more so than the quote from Jim Kelly given by Wes McKinley (HCN, 2/16/09). As one of the plant engineers at Rocky Flats, Kelly’s statement that “we didn’t need to pollute like that” is an indictment of the whole sordid […]
Posted inMarch 16, 2009: Innovate
Collateral damage
Regarding your story on the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant: I was new in Boulder in the early 1950s, when the announcement was made that this large defense plant would be located between Boulder and Golden (HCN, 2/16/09). Ever since, I have pondered the question, “Why would our government locate a prime defense plant (target) […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
Let Cody pay
Your story, “Political guns,” says: “The park bosses hope to make the Sylvan Pass mission safer by buying three new over-snow vehicles for rescues, ambulance and crew transport. They also want to install more concrete reinforcement for the howitzer position and a hut where rangers can huddle for warmth. But such safety measures could cost […]
Posted inMarch 2, 2009: How low will it go?
Long day’s journey
Mr. Thompson’s “Editor’s Note” and Mr. Moore’s article “All Aboard” failed to mention a couple of key points about traveling on Amtrak (HCN, 2/02/09). Although Mr. Thompson and his family paid for berths when they took the train, most Americans who take Amtrak travel in coach class. With children’s tickets at half price, the journey […]