Letter to the editor

Laura Paskus’ article on the traveling butchering unit in Taos seemed very insensitive. “Beginning this spring, cattle, pigs, lamb, goats, even bison, will trot up the ramp leading into the back of the Mobile Matanza, where they’ll be met by …” This line is complemented by a picture of a man sharpening a large knife. […]

Please do not take the editorial advice from Mark Salvo concerning the use of the word “overgrazing.” It is ironic that Salvo portrays himself as being on the side of “rational discourse” when he appears in fact to be one of those zealots who believes that any grazing in that nonexistent monolith he calls “the […]

The “Condemned” article stated that “private parties” like corporations can condemn private property, bypassing government, for “public use” in five Western states. If that is the case, then why can’t “private parties” like incorporated environmental groups condemn the private property of corporations for “public use”? Rather than fight to change the state constitutions, use existing […]

Looking at the 2008 election in “Two Weeks in the West,” Jonathan Thompson appropriately pointed out the condescending nature of the New York Post’s headline about a New Mexican politician tossing his “sombrero” into the presidential ring. He then went on in the same paragraph to use the same inappropriate style by including the religious […]

Too bad Matt Jenkins ruined an otherwise well-researched, well-written article, “The Efficiency Paradox,” with his out-of-line comments in the sixth paragraph from the end. “Doddering snowbirds”… come on. Do doddering snowbirds walk three miles a day or hike to the bottom and back of Bryce Canyon in 90 degree heat at over 9,000 foot altitude? […]

Your amusement in “Heard Around the West” concerning the Idaho Statesman headline about a missing councilman is not at all amusing. This is a local gentleman that stopped to assist a driver at the side of the highway, and as a result it is assumed that he was hit by a passing vehicle or jumped […]

As a longtime HCN subscriber, I want to congratulate Ray Ring on winning the (George) Polk Award (I just got your e-mail notice of the award at The Chadron Record, where I am editor and publisher). “Taking Liberties,” his article on the Libertarian election initiatives, was a great example of how even a small paper […]

Ed Marston’s review of Alvin Josephy’s new book Lewis and Clark Through Indian Eyes refers to Bernard DeVoto’s Course of Empire as a “traditional” perspective characterizing the expedition as “one long and heroic act, one close call, one brilliant decision after another.” Having just re-read all three of DeVoto’s Western histories, I must take exception […]

I congratulate you and author Emma Brown on the recent article “Under the Radar.” Many, perhaps most, of your articles relate controversies that involve high-stakes battles between corporations, government entities, environmental organizations, or landowners. This story is a human one that transcends our differences. This is not a news report that you have published, but […]

“Two Weeks in the West” noted problems with Colorado’s conservation easement tax credit program. This was just enough information to frighten people, but not enough to help them understand the real nature and extent of the problems with the state tax credit. It is widely estimated that 20 to 25 percent of all easements started […]

In a society that reportedly has a per capita resource consumption 25 times larger than the global average, it is not surprising that the gritty piece by Hannah Nordhaus has more than a grain of truth. To some degree, however, Nordhaus’ cozy interviews with the various perpetrators obscure the fact that pots and kettles come […]

I was very disappointed in the “Confessions of a Methane Floozy” article. The writer almost sounds like an energy industry hack. Her limited viewpoint and knowledge sound like another propaganda tool from the Bush administration: “You use the energy so accept the consequences.” I’m not sure where the numbers came from regarding the estimated percentage […]

Pepper Trail’s opinion column on salvage logging misses the mark, casting forest management in a one-dimensional, ecological way. Rather, forest management and salvage logging must be driven by sustainability. We live in a three-dimensional world — ecological, social and economic. It’s not a matter of balancing these, for balance implies they are separate. They are […]

I am shocked when I read letters like Linda Knowlton’s, supporting recreation user fees. The greatest period of public-land recreation-related infrastructure development in the United States occurred during and just after the Great Depression, when the nation was at its poorest. Now that we have experienced huge growth in the GDP and in the number […]

A story in “Heard around the West” disappointed me. As an avid hunter, environmentalist and military officer, I found that the piece, which derisively described the buffoonery of “hunters” in connection with an anti-poaching operation in a Western state, demonstrated one of the fundamental weaknesses of the increasingly ineffective environmental movement. Attitudes of many environmentalists […]

Ugh. It’s hard to accept that the likes of this stuff (sludge) is going on the ground that grows my food. But what are the alternatives? If we want to be — must be — a sustainable society, we have to do something with our waste besides bury it or throw it in the ocean. […]

Just when I thought Santa would be skipping my house this year, I read April Reese’s article. A more wonderful and heartwarming Christmas present I could never receive! I first discovered Valle Vidal many years ago while roaming around the northern New Mexico mountains. When I came around the bend and my eyes feasted on […]

Thank you for the wonderful article “Old but Faithful,” about the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees. I agree with this group’s fight against commercialization, too many fees, and fees that are too high in our national parks. I cannot for the life of me understand how Holly Fretwell, of the Libertarian-oriented Property and Environment […]

In response to Ted Williams’ article “They should shoot horses, shouldn’t they?” he is correct that wild horses should be managed appropriately on public lands. However, here in central Idaho we have one area where mustangs have roamed for decades and are managed by BLM. I have spent years hiking and photographing these horses. They […]

In his essay on wild horses, Williams offers no facts. Instead, he merely quotes harried former BLM employees and a New York Times article to buttress his specious arguments. Moreover, speaking from his presumably well-informed New England Audubon landscape, known perhaps somewhere for the wild horses of which he blithely opines, the kernel of his […]