Letter to the editor

I’m writing in response to your “Dear Friends” column of June 12. I found your focus on diversity at a recent Saturday morning gathering of staffers and board members to be troubling. I cannot fathom the weak, irrational deduction that goes, “because the (fill in the blank) is diverse, our staff or our movement or […]

I enjoyed Paolo Bacigalupi’s story, “The Tamarisk Hunter.” (HCN, 6/26/06: The Tamarisk Hunter) It was a good piece of science fiction and intriguing thinking as well. But I need to make a correction to Greg Hanscom’s thinking in his editorial. The Upper Basin states are NOT obligated to deliver an average of 7.5 million acre-feet of […]

Just finished reading “The Tamarisk Hunter” (HCN, 6/26/06:The Tamarisk Hunter). Wow! What a great piece of fiction (maybe)! The excellent illustrations set the stage. This was a nice twist in a great paper. Ken Decker Santee, California This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A Calie cheers for ‘Tamarisk […]

Remember, always, you are High Country News and not a literary sheet specializing in fiction, such as your issue featuring “The Tamarisk Hunter” (HCN, 6/26/06:The Tamarisk Hunter). If I want summer reading, I will pick my own fiction. I subscribe to you for balanced, in-depth news on natural resource issues in the West. Tom McAllister […]

Thought-provoking piece of fiction (nonfiction?) (HCN, 6/26/06: The Tamarisk Hunter). Good writing and imagery. The city of Grand Junction is very involved in the “coalition” of Colorado water users funding the efforts of Jim Lochhead in negotiations between the Upper and Lower Basin states. Your scenarios are not far from the mark and touch on some […]

Your otherwise excellent article on Measure 37 omitted one area that has cried for rebuttal — the term “property rights” (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). All land in the United States (with the possible exception of tribal lands) comes as a conveyance from the government. That grant came and comes with strings, of which there are four: […]

Not all libertarians are affiliated with the Libertarian Party and get just 1 to 2 percent of the vote in elections (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). The majority of libertarians these days are active in the GOP and actually win elections, like Congressmen Ron Paul of Texas, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Butch Otter of Idaho, and Dana […]

Yee-haw! It’s great to see High Country News riding full bore to expose the awful “takings” initiatives under way in six Western states (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). HCN is right on when it asserts that people were snookered into voting for this awful legislation in Oregon, where I lived at the time. Even my conservationist and […]

As an Oregon voter, I strongly support Measure 37 (HCN, 7/24/06). Do I think it solves everything about land use? Of course not. Will it need revision in the future? Certainly. So why do I support it? Because it forces government at all levels to pause and think about what they are doing. In some areas […]

I stumbled across your newspaper at my girlfriend’s house (the landlords subscribe to it) and while waiting for my microwave meal to heat, I started reading this article (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). By the time I was done, my food was cold and I was ranting and raving to my girlfriend about this Howie Rich devil […]

Ray Ring writes: “Governments use eminent domain occasionally, to condemn property and force the owners to accept a buyout, to make new roads, urban renewal and other projects that benefit the public” (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). OK, but who decides if the projects will benefit the public? In New Mexico, Bernalillo County has rezoned so that […]

The “Taking Liberties” article is pure propaganda (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). These sinister Libertarians who can never seem to get a percent or two of the vote have somehow hypnotized Oregon voters (hardly a bastion of conservatism) and pulled the wool out from under everyone? Huh? All of these measures are going to pass and pass […]

One response to the takings movement might be to pass legislation allowing neighbors to sue developers for reductions in their own property values, or recreationists to sue them for lost value of amenities. Posted by nordell This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Fight fire with fire.

The “Taking Liberties” article is completely overblown (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). I have filed and won a Measure 37 claim, so I have some experience with this. The sky is not falling, folks. Life in Oregon goes on as before, for 99 percent of the people. No, everyone is not finding a trailer park or gravel […]

Ray Ring’s “Taking Liberties” shows how easily the initiative process can lead to unintended and unpleasant consequences (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). Most people rarely take the time to fully inform themselves on the issues they’re voting on. It reminds me of something the journalist H.L. Mencken said almost a hundred years ago: “Democracy is the theory […]

Dorothy English said it as plain as possible: “I want my land to be mine, to do with whatever I want” (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). Community concerns enter in not. I live in isolation on this planet and I don’t want to be obstructed by war, famine, pestilence, nearby neighbors, or global warming. It is my […]

I’d like to respond to Kevin Walker’s recent letter (HCN, 7/24/06: SUWA’s on the right track). He rejects my comments that enviro groups like SUWA have ignored impacts from non-motorized recreation and the “amenities economy.” He also calls “completely false” my assertion that SUWA altered a proposed wilderness boundary to avoid conflicts with the “24 Hours […]

For my money, Jim Stiles, along with a small handful of others like Charles Bowden and Doug Peacock, is one of the leading fresh, outside-the-box voices in the American West since Ed Abbey’s death (HCN, 5/29/06: Clinging hopelessly to the past). We need more of them.  Unfortunately, prophets like Stiles (here meaning not smitten-by-gawd predictors, but […]

Let me make something clear: I do not like backcountry mountain biking, white-tablecloth-and-fine-wine river adventures or any of the rest of New West’s industrial recreationism. But Jim Stiles’ idea that New West recreationism is just as destructive as Old West extractionism is just plain hogwash (HCN, 5/29/06:Clinging hopelessly to the past). Industrial logging and ranching […]

Thanks for airing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s dirty laundry. Not listing the Gunnison sage grouse as an endangered species is mind-boggling (HCN, 6/12/06: On a wing and a prayer). This is an administration that wouldn’t have listed the passenger pigeon as endangered, if they’d had the chance. San Miguel County, home to the most […]