Letter to the editor

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service claims that border fencing won’t jeopardize the jaguar because the U.S. Southwest is unneeded turf for conserving the species worldwide (HCN, 10/15/07). Unless someone reverses this myopic policy in court, we can forget about federal protection of jaguar habitat any time soon, since, by inference, the same would apply […]

Thank you so much for publishing “Eminent domain’s poster children” (HCN, 10/15/07). I hope it serves as a way to inform people about the issue we are facing in southeast Colorado. This proposed land grab stands to ruin not only lives but the beautiful landscape and history of this area. We are working together as […]

I find I must respond to Evelyn Spence’s somewhat arrogant and self-serving essay on RV owners (HCN, 10/15/07). There are as many reasons why people choose to camp with RVs as there are people who own them. What you don’t understand is that many of us are not camping all of the time. Sometimes we […]

All I can say to Evelyn Spence is, “Been there … Done that! NOT doing it anymore, so eat your heart out, babe!” (HCN, 10/15/07). Your day will come whenever you get tired of the rocks poking you in the back and the smoke stinging your eyes. If you have a tent, you have more […]

How wonderful that you can experience a little of what I was able to experience 45 years ago, when campgrounds weren’t crowded, you could drink from springs and creeks before giardia was imported from central Asia, many places that are now housing developments were wilderness, and we didn’t have Gore-Tex, lightweight tents, foam mattresses, sleeping […]

I read with understanding and dismay the essay by Evelyn Spence on the RV blight (HCN, 10/15/07). I hope she will soften her point of view in due time … I’m an elderly rancher/horse dealer/painter, with two RVs at present, both of which she forgot to mention: “Chinook” and “Airstream.” Music to my ears. Named […]

I appreciate Rick Craig’s illuminating the concerns of the scientific community, and some forward-thinking members of Congress, regarding tree planting as a means of offsetting CO2 production (HCN, 10/15/07). Planting trees does nothing to alleviate our appetite for fossil fuels and petroleum-derived consumer products. Real estate developers are now jumping onto the bandwagon of planting […]

I want to correct a misperception by Nathaniel Hoffman in his article entitled “Sheep v. Sheep” (HCN, 10/01/07). Nathaniel incorrectly describes Western Watersheds Project as an anti-grazing group. In fact, Western Watersheds Project is very much pro-grazing – just not by domestic livestock. Jon Marvel Executive Director, Western Watersheds Project Hailey, Idaho This article appeared […]

Despite the odd title – “A downside to downing dams?” – the relatively positive restoration story provided a glimpse into the inherent complexity of dam removal (HCN, 10/01/07). But there is much more to the Fossil Creek story. Getting to the point of dam removal is seldom easy. The Fossil Creek power plant decommissioning (done) […]

I was pleased to see an article highlighting some of the great river restoration successes on Fossil Creek (HCN, 10/01/07). It is unfortunate, however, that the article also seems intent on creating a dam-removal controversy where one does not exist. River restoration practitioners – and the conservation groups that we often work with – are […]

A common logical error is the “either-or” fallacy. We must either kill wolves or put up with dead and horribly maimed cows. And men so quickly turn to guns. I’m sure there are many solutions in between, one of which is “negotiating” with the wolves. Ann Daum writes about a rancher successfully negotiating with coyotes […]

I listened to elders and medicine people from over a dozen tribes give testimony to Forest Service Supervisor Nora Rasure, explaining to her why snowmaking with treated wastewater was blasphemy (HCN, 9/17/07). I watched middle-aged men bow their heads as tears streaked their faces. None of that seemed to move Ms. Rasure. She told the […]

Over the years, the Classifieds section has greatly expanded. No problem there – I’m sure it represents needed income for HCN, and the advertising has been an extension of HCN’s mission to report news of Western resource issues. However, I was quite dismayed with the Aug. 20 ad for the sale of an AKC female […]

The article describing the potential use of pumping CO2 underground prompts me to provide an alternative, and perhaps less costly, way of sequestering carbon exhausted from industrial sources (HCN, 9/3/07). I would suggest that the energy producers pump gaseous CO2 through vast transparent vats filled with blue-green algae and nutrients. If the vats were placed […]

Chalk another one up for the cattle industry and beef consumerism (HCN, 8/20/07). Clear mesquite trees to plant buffelgrass for cattle grazing, and clear more trees for mesquite charcoal to cook the cattle. The inverted cycle of life. I seem to have missed where the “good intentions” apply in this story. Was it good intentions […]

The exchange inspired by Bryce Andrews’ “Living Precariously With Wolves and Cattle,” has revealed a striking contrast in soul and substance on opposite sides of the divide over management of public rangelands in the American West (HCN, 8/20/07). Andrews’ description of killing one wolf and participating, at least indirectly, in the killing of three others […]

The article by Valerie Brown illustrates our country dancing around the gorilla in the kitchen (HCN, 9/3/07). No amount of mitigation for stopping climate change will work unless we stabilize population. Nothing will solve this civilization’s spiral into irreversible consequences and unsolvable problems unless we stop population growth. The March 2006 population projections from Fogle/Martin […]

Valerie Brown is to be congratulated for pursuing the story line in “A Climate Change Solution?” that some of the greenhouse carbon dioxide (CO2) that human activities are adding to the atmosphere could possibly be sequestered deep within a stack of basalt lava flows (HCN, 9/3/07). But the article fails to describe how scientist Peter […]

This response to Jonathan Thompson’s essay is not about the right to bear arms and the purpose of firearms (HCN, 9/3/07). (I do bear arms and I hunt with firearms.) Rather, it is more about the changing West. Thompson’s encounter with the Lexus-driving “bird man” reminds me of the sneer I got when I drove […]

I am glad to see HCN finally writing about the BLM’s plan to aerial spray nearly 1 million acres of public land annually for the purpose of controlling invasive plants (HCN, 9/3/07) The West is a storybook of public-land calamities and this is yet another. Most of these have been foisted upon us by public […]