Letter to the editor

It is clear from his critique of SUWA that although he rants from the sidelines, Jim Stiles has never actually been in the game (HCN, 5/29/06:Clinging hopelessly to the past). The absence of actual political experience may explain Jim’s emphasis on an elusive wilderness bill to the exclusion of SUWA’s other achievements. Without SUWA, Utah’s […]

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 […]

I happened upon the March 21, 2005, issue of HCN at my local library’s freebie box, took it home, and enjoyed it. Your approach to environmental issues is fair and well presented. Henceforth, I am taking HCN off my Environmental Wacko list and putting it on my Resource list. Ross B. Yingst Lemitar, New Mexico […]

I was quite moved by Jeff Golden’s Writers on the Range column suggesting that we invite a blockhead to lunch (HCN, 5/15/06: Isn’t it time to bury the hatchet?). In fact, it inspired me to do just what Mr. Golden suggested: I e-mailed my favorite blockhead and suggested that we act on Mr. Golden’s suggestion. […]

The LDS (Mormon) church’s opposition to a nuclear waste storage site near Salt Lake City hardly qualifies them as environmentalists (HCN, 6/26/06: Saints speak out against nuclear waste). This appears to be more a case of NIMBY (Not in My Back Yard). Here we have a religious group that advocates that church members have families […]

I want to thank HCN for the excellent article on the Española Valley’s heroin problem (HCN, 4/03/06: Land of Disenchantment). Ten years ago, I was an archaeologist for the Española District. My survey partner and I would regularly find artifacts of heroin use on forest lands, as well as witness the heroin users themselves stumbling […]

Jim Stiles claims the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA) changed proposed wilderness boundaries in order to accommodate a mountain bike race (HCN, 5/29/06: Clinging hopelessly to the past). His claim is completely false. I was in charge of drawing the boundaries for this part of the Utah Wilderness Coalition’s proposal, and I drew them based […]

As a native Idahoan, there is no doubt in my mind: Former Idaho governor and now Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne is purely and simply a foot soldier, a lackey for the money boys (HCN, 6/12/06: Interior’s new secretary — general or foot soldier?). On his watch, the quality of life in Idaho seriously deteriorated. I […]

I was appalled, even within the context of a book review, to read an uncritical and glowing assessment of Ernesto “Che” Guevara as a “secular saint” whose “ideas of social justice and democracy unite Latinos throughout the Americas” (HCN, 6/26/06: Nuestra America). High Country News has lost my sympathies forever. If all you know of […]

Tell us what you REALLY think … In a recent online survey, we asked readers, “Is there anything you’d like to tell the staff that might help improve High Country News?” Here are some snippets from the more than 700 comments we received, in the order they came in. You guys rock. I use HCN […]

Thank you for your in-depth articles regarding Mexican immigrants’ desire for a better life through better pay here in the U.S. (HCN, 5/15/06). The existing U.S. immigration policies for those entering legally and illegally are abysmal and need to be changed. Let us not forget that we, as a country, were all immigrants once. We […]

Immigration is the most formidable weapon of mass destruction threatening America today (HCN, 5/15/06). Ironically, invaders have put our country at risk without firing a shot. The White House, the heavies in Congress and the smaller fish in state legislatures do not seem to have the collective intellectual depth or common sense to see what […]

Your thoughtful, perceptive articles on immigration have finally given me as much understanding of the Mexican migrants’ views as I — a WASP woman — am ever likely to get (HCN, 5/15/06). I’ve read dozens of articles, but you clarified the questions fairly, vividly and with compassion. Even in Cheyenne, an hour from Greeley, I […]

Your immigration story “Apprehension” quoted U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Officer John Schaefer as saying “All enforcement stops within 80 miles of the border” (HCN, 5/15/06). Not so! I live in a village of 800 approximately 150 miles from the Mexican border via crow flight, much longer by any system of roads. Our village law […]

John Fayhee quotes Heidi McIntosh, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance’s conservation director: “At one time The Zephyr was important” (HCN, 5/29/06: Clinging Hopelessly to the Past). That really got my attention, my outrage. Seven words of dismissal, the meaning crystal clear: Public disagreement with SUWA automatically puts The Zephyr in gulag territory, no longer relevant, […]

The ongoing discussions about Brokeback Mountain prompt me to write (HCN, 4/3/06: Keep the closet closed, please). During my 55-year marriage, I have lived in much of the West. I’ve even had the rare opportunity to actually live on a working cattle ranch. In short, I’ve known a lot of real cowboys! Seeing Brokeback Mountain was a […]

A “terrorist” intentionally targets innocent people in order to promote a political agenda. Members of the Earth Liberation Front target only property, which invariably belongs to Earth-rapers with nothing innocent about them (HCN, 4/17/06: Eco-terrorism and the trial of the century). ELF has never killed or injured anyone. They are idealistic kids who claim that the […]

I am a member of the Sierra Club, The Nature Conservancy, the National Wildlife Federation and other environmental organizations. However, I believe that blind opposition to any reasonable reform of the Endangered Species Act is eventually going to lead to unreasonable reform. Indeed, I believe that is why we are looking at reform legislation right […]