Letter to the editor

About five times a year we fly a small private plane from Arizona to California and back, and our route often takes us just to the north of the Salton Sea (HCN, 3/03/08). We’ve often wondered what it’s like on the ground. Now we know, and we don’t need to land to see it for […]

I was touched by Ana Maria Spagna’s essay, “Staying Put” (HCN, 3/03/08). As parents to two elderly-but-still-healthy, but nonetheless dependent and emotionally needy cats, we stay home quite a bit. And I’ve been hoping for a long time to hear someone in authority, or aspiring to authority, suggest to the American people that we might […]

I was pleased to read your article “Reluctant Boomtown,” which focused on the multitude of problems connected with the possible return of copper mining to the town of Superior, Ariz. (HCN, 2/18/08). It seems that in Superior some residents favor the mine and some oppose it. You briefly mention another proposal, on the oak and […]

What a pleasant surprise to read James Yearling’s informative piece about geothermal energy (HCN, 2/18/08). As a volcanologist who spent much of his 32-year career researching geothermal resources for the U.S. Geological Survey, I’m used to seeing geothermal treated like the comedian Rodney Dangerfield … getting no respect. This lack of respect is in spite […]

Richard Halsey, discussed in Judith Lewis’ story “The Chaparralian,” should not assume that because lightning-caused fires in coastal California are rare, all fire there is historically rare (HCN, 2/04/08). In his book Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness, anthropologist Omer C. Stewart argues persuasively, using documentation and physical evidence, that for thousands of […]

High Country News has brought to the fore a critical environmental quandary: Should we protect species by any means necessary in the face of climate change or let nature take its course (HCN, 2/04/08)? There is another element of our response to climate change that deserves greater emphasis: management of working landscapes. A “let nature […]

While it is gratifying to see some coverage of the potential problems our current wildlife preservation systems face in the presence of climate change, there are some continuing blind spots that should be pointed out (HCN, 2/04/08). First, as was noted in a 2002 HCN interview with conservation biologist Michael Soule, the “pristine ecosystem” that […]

What a depressing letters page (HCN, 2/04/08)! Mr. Gardner speaks of an unsustainable population, Bagley takes a cheap shot at large families, and Williams is just plain mad at “enormous families.” These sentiments are intolerant and hateful. They remind me of Einstein’s words: “The most important decision you have to make is whether you live […]

While Randy Udall has some valid issues, in that it’s reasonable for the state to benefit from mining its natural resources, especially to pay for infrastructure, his logic breaks down when he tries to make the connection that oil companies’ high profits are due to gas production in Colorado (HCN, 2/04/08). Most of the companies […]

The article about Superior, Ariz., was well-researched and beautifully written (HCN, 2/18/08). My husband has many family connections with that area, so we have visited over the years and wondered how things would turn out for those old mining towns. It always seemed to me that Superior had a great future as a place for […]

BIOFUEL WON’T DO IT Sugar cane’s efficiency in producing ethanol is 800 percent compared with 130 percent for corn, as others have mentioned (HCN, 2/4/08). Currently, our sugar cane lands in Hawaii are fallow or growing eucalyptus trees. But even if we replanted cane to all these lands and also to suitable lands in our […]

I thought Ray Ring’s article on a potential national energy policy was excellent (HCN, 1/21/08). It was the sort of piece that made me glad I recently renewed my subscription. Now if only a presidential candidate would take it from here. Robert Fisher Corona, Arizona This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine […]

Instead of giving us a hypothetical letter, why not call the presidential candidates and ask them where they stand on Western issues, and then tell us (HCN, 1/21/08)? You could have played an important role in informing us about where the candidates stand on the issues. I believe the most important challenge in the West […]

It seemed as though Todd Wilkinson’s column, “Where do you draw the line?” was really asking, “Where should I draw the line?” (HCN, 1/21/08). I was unable to connect the dots between his reflections upon his own “lame and futile” political agitations of the past to beg the title question for the rest of us. […]

The degree of one’s patriotism can be measured by what is risked by the individual. Todd Wilkinson’s recent essay said, “Yet how is standing up to battle against landscape destruction any less a patriotic calling than what is being asked of our soldiers in Iraq?” (HCN, 1/21/08) Conservationists rarely risk their lives or even their […]

It was with extra excitement that I turned to Michelle Nijhuis’ article on hitchhiking, “The Last Ride,” in the Oct. 29, 2007 issue. This means of travel brought me out to explore the American West for the first time 32 years ago, and led to my settling there. I’ve met people, gone places, and done […]

Ray Ring’s Western campaign speech was a start, but I was crossing my fingers and hoping that it wouldn’t be 98 percent MORE (meaning “let’s generate more electricity for more people, using alternative energy sources”) with only one brief mention of efficiency and conservation (HCN, 1/21/08). I also hoped it wouldn’t offer the false hope […]

I am a native of Colorado and consider myself an environmentalist, but the anti-oil tone of modern “environmentalists,” coupled with their lifestyle of hypocrisy, has alienated many independent and moderate Republicans (like myself) that would otherwise support pro-nature agendas. This isn’t a taunt so much as it is a reality check from outside of the […]

That Somali’s tie may be straight (and he’s lucky to get into the U.S. from such a Godforsaken country); but he has eight kids (HCN, 1/21/08)! In an overpopulated world and country, this constitutes gross environmental irresponsibility. Every time I read about somebody with such an enormous family, I get mad. Besides the “green” movement, […]

High Country News could devote an entire issue to examining the cultural diversity of the West. Or, as you did, print just three of the responses to “Last Chance for the Lobo” (HCN, 1/21/08). The two letters from Reserve, N.M., remind me of the quote, “It is better to remain silent and be thought a […]