Letter to the editor

By any measure, the outdoor education and indoctrination of mountain bikers has been a story of unparalleled success. In less than 20 years, mountain-bike advocacy groups like the International Mountain Bicycling Association have accomplished what other traditional user groups have had centuries, if not millennia, to address. And as the article in your Sept. 18 […]

Although mountain bikers are essentially silent, as well as not motorized, not polluting, muscle-powered, and most importantly, appreciative of Nature and wild places, environmentalists like HCN Editor Greg Hanscom have from the beginning thumbed their noses at us. In his Sept. 18 editorial, Hanscom says we “should stay out of wilderness politics,” because there ought […]

I’d like to answer the rhetorical question on the cover of the Sept. 18 issue: “Mountain bikers, long vilified as unruly renegades, are finally winning respect — and access to more trails. But does a new generation of gonzo riders threaten all that?” My response is: I certainly hope so. Nothing pictured on the cover, […]

Patrick Farrell’s Sept. 18 cover story, “Going Big,” presented a fairly accurate picture of the current challenges facing the mountain-bike community. As an active mountain-bike trail advocate since 1989, I have witnessed the gradual acceptance of mountain bikes as part of the trail equation by land agencies and most trail users. The upstart downhill/ freeride […]

In response to the Sept. 18 cover story, “Going Big,” just hop on your mountain bike and pedal on a well-known 4×4 outback road, where the four-wheelers exceed the speed limits, kick up dust, mud, rocks, and try to enjoy the same road with your bike. This experience is the same for any hiker in […]

I began mountain biking in Santa Cruz in 1984, riding in the Coast Range from Big Sur to the Bay Area. In the years that followed, I was baffled and dismayed by the rancor of the hiker/biker conflict. For me, and the friends I rode with, mountain biking was simply another way to explore the […]

Greg Hanscom penned one of the more eloquent and poignant discourses that I have ever encountered on limiting access to mountain bikes in wilderness areas in his Sept. 18 editorial. As a fellow longtime mountain bike rider, I must say that he is not just speaking for himself on this issue. Joe Oliver Carmel Valley, […]

In response to your Sept. 4 story, “States crack down on illegal immigrants”: I care about the West. I don’t want to walk in a forest which sports two humans for every tree, or hike on an ocean beach that is solid human bodies — Coney Island, for instance. Resisting immigration seems to be the […]

John Leshy is correct when he states in your Sept. 4, 2006, article “When Can the BLM Say ‘No’?” that “It’s absolutely clear that the agencies have discretion (about offering leases).” The BLM’s attitude that it has “little authority to prevent drilling,” is the consequence of a self-imposed Bush administration policy not required by any […]

When Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., verbally attacked a Forest Service Hotshot crew in the Billings airport in July (“You did a piss-poor job. … didn’t do a goddamn thing but sit around and get paid $10,000.”), the Hotshots did the only thing federal employees can do: Instead of responding to Burns, they called back to […]

Nuclear power cannot solve all our energy needs. Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore thinks a greater amount of our power should come from nuclear energy. However, it’s unsuitable for anything beyond baseload demand because nuclear power plants cannot be easily turned on and off. There are ways around this, but they add considerably to the already […]

Remnants of the nuclear frenzy that swept across the Colorado Plateau from the 1950s still scar the landscape, especially in the form of exploration roads carved into the wilderness. Bob Dawson’s image on the cover of your Sept. 4 issue reflects the fact that impacts on the built environment often fade more quickly than disruptions […]

“Reborn” by Jonathan Thompson in your Sept. 4, 2006, issue beautifully displayed the intellectual dishonesty of the environmental movement, as exemplified by Greenpeace founder Patrick Moore. Neither friends nor enemies of the environment want to reduce demand by “talking about population control or conservation measures. …” Instead, they want to build nuclear power plants to […]

Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore have popularized a misperception of golf as a game played by rich white guys who wear funny clothes, bet large amounts of money, drink too much, and regularly invent new terms of profanity. There certainly are golfers whose sense of ecosystem management is having sufficient Cuban cigars to play 18 holes. […]

Of COURSE there’s life after the lawn. I transformed my typical suburban front lawn in Loveland to a Xeriscaped yard that won a gardening contest, and looks far better than the previous featureless expanse. True, it was no longer suitable for whiffleball, but with family grown and living elsewhere, play space was less important. The […]

I found “life after the lawn” several years ago. I have lived in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert all my life, but I let myself be led astray. When I was younger, I let Easterners and other assorted city slickers influence me to plant a Bermuda grass lawn and even a winter rye grass lawn. Both are […]

Ranchers have it tough, a huge understatement, but Sharon Salisbury O’Toole’s complaint in her Aug. 7 essay, “There was no green in this Rainbow gathering,” sounds like a selfish indulgence. I was surprised that it was published by HCN. Ranchers enjoy the use of public lands most of the year and make a profit while […]

It appears that just about any place can qualify as wilderness these days if the political will is there to make it so. This certainly is the case for the Jerry Peak area in Idaho. The truly beautiful picture accompanying the Aug. 21 article, “Wilderness cliffhanger,” shows the area as emerald green. Most of the […]

I am an Oregon planner. Yes, I repeat: I am an Oregon planner. Despite what you hear about Measure 37, we’re still here. The sky fell and we’re still around picking up the pieces. Life’s never been better. Years ago, some of us said it was time to go out to the public, statewide, and […]

Regarding your Aug. 8 article, “Clearing a path for power,” as a veteran of a successful 11-year battle to stop a 345 KV power line from being built across the Valles Caldera National Preserve in northern New Mexico, I know how complicated and time-consuming stopping these power lines can be. Sadly, most large new power […]