Letter to the editor

I need to fine-tune your editor’s note on long-term drought (HCN, 1/24/05: Who’ll stop the rain?), I’m sure that you folks have heard about the tree stumps in Lake Tahoe. They are over 100 years old and reveal to us that drought has been here in our recent past and it lasted for a very […]

I would like to commend HCN on running Eliza Murphy’s story, “The Asphalt Graveyard,” as the cover story (HCN, 2/7/05: Caught in the Headlights). I’m embarrassed to say I had never thought much about roadkill before meeting Eliza, last year at the University of Montana’s Environmental Writing Institute. I was struck then, as I am […]

The cover of HCN caught my eye as I sorted through the mail yesterday evening. I opened it and began reading Eliza Murphy’s article, “The Asphalt Graveyard,” while putting away groceries (HCN, 2/7/05: Caught in the Headlights). I was so gripped by it that I didn’t make it to the dining table but just spread […]

The misty-eyed author of “The Asphalt Graveyard” (HCN, 2/7/05: Caught in the Headlights) apparently does not realize that not only have paved highways, numbers of vehicles, and speed increased over the past number of years, but so have the numbers of large animals. Elk have increased almost exponentially in Arizona’s mountains, and deer populations throughout […]

Regarding Matt Jenkins’ otherwise excellent article, “A crisis brews on the Colorado”: To talk about water without discussion of population growth is a bit like planning a wedding reception without knowing how many guests will be there — doomed to failure (HCN, 1/24/05: A crisis brews on the Colorado). I am a firm believer in […]

In “Taking the West Forward,” you bashed both the Bush administration and the Republicans in Congress over energy policy and their perceived failure to regulate carbon dioxide emissions, but you failed to even mention the driving force behind increasing energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, namely immigration (HCN, 12/6/04: Taking the West Forward). The increase […]

We appreciate Rebecca Watson’s invitation to Westerners, and we salute the many positive efforts Interior is undertaking to protect wild places and involve the public. But we do not believe HCN has mischaracterized the Bush administration’s record. On the subject of opening land to development: In 2001, the Department of Agriculture rewrote the Roadless Area […]

The Dec. 6 feature article, “Taking the West Forward,” grossly mischaracterizes the Bush administration’s policies and programs. The article states the administration has “opened the region’s resources to development” when in fact public lands, at the direction of Congress, have been open for years. More typically, this administration has restricted development in previously open sensitive […]

Opening up wilderness areas, even “de facto” wilderness areas, to mountain bike use will set a bad precedent for the future of wilderness management in this country (HCN, 11/22/04: Racetrack). Allowing mountain bike use defies the basic principles of the 1964 Wilderness Act. The comment made by Gary Sprung that “cycling in the backcountry is […]

The essay “American — and proud of it” by Geneen Haugen suggested that “the stunning fact that Americans have preserved habitat at all is evidence of an emerging ecological vision” (HCN, 11/8/04: American — and proud of it). The optimist in me would like to agree. However, setting aside large areas of natural environment means […]

Your small mention of Proposition 200 in Arizona was misleading (HCN, 11/22/04: Racetrack). Just to set the record straight, the proposition only covers state welfare benefits under our Title 46 and does not apply to federally mandated public benefits such as schooling or emergency health care. And since 4,000 illegal immigrants a day cross just […]

Felice Pace’s and Janine Blaeloch’s letters give an entirely false impression of the conservation movement in Nevada (HCN, 12/20/04). The Lincoln County Bill was a public-lands bill that had the support of the five legislators from Nevada. It would have passed, whether or not any wilderness was included in the bill. The bill was not […]

A comment on Suzanne Stone’s thought that “wolves are a drop in the bucket” as far as impact on livestock (HCN, 12/6/04: Dear friends): The Soulen Ranch of western Idaho lost 322 sheep to wolves during the summer of 2004. The ranching and environmental community should not be at odds with each other. Ranchers do […]

HCN reported that “the first major test of the stricter mining trust fund standards established during the Clinton administration has been a flop” (HCN, 12/20/04: Followup). This is in reference to a recent BLM decision relating to the Phoenix Mine project near Battle Mountain, Nev. In fact, Newmont is being held to the highest standard […]

I was both astounded and disappointed by your simplistic analysis of water issues in the article, “Taking the West Forward” (HCN, 12/6/04: Taking the West Forward). HCN states matter-of-factly that additional freshwater needs to be moved to meet the evolving needs of the West’s urban areas, and offers an unqualified endorsement of lining rural earthen […]

Your article “Taking the West Forward” nailed a key issue that typically escapes public notice: the system of water rights in the West that gives priority to the oldest users of water and typically requires water to be taken out of streams to be protected as a valid use (HCN, 12/6/04: Taking the West Forward). […]

The editors of HCN claim the Bush administration (and therefore everyone who voted for him) are out of touch with “Westerners” on environmental issues. I would argue that the environmental community is out of touch with Western values. A small crack formed between environmental interests and the rest of America in 1994 when the Republican […]

I would gladly learn to love the Healthy Forests Restoration Act if it were truly designed to promote healthy forests. Instead, the act provides cover for logging the remaining large trees in our national forests in the name of fuels reduction. What’s next — HCN endorsement of the president’s Clear Skies Initiative? David Edelson, Sierra […]

Just a note to say “Thanks” for the thoughtful suggestion to rally folks around environmental issues (HCN, 12/6/04: Taking the West Forward). My entire professional life, and now my time in retirement, has been focused on restoring and protecting the environment. I’ve never been as discouraged as I am now about where our country is […]

The essay by Rebecca Clarren on Measure 37 strikes a particular chord with me, because I am an offspring of one of those rural Oregonians that have sacrificed a lot to allow those fine “enlightened” city folk from the Willamette Valley to experience the beauty and serenity of Oregon’s unspoiled countryside (HCN, 9/22/04: In Oregon, […]