Letter to the editor

“Good job” to HCN for making waves in the climbing community (HCN, 7/7/03: Invasion of the rock jocks). Until climbers take the most basic step of using chalk that is color-matched to the rock they are climbing on, their environmental ethics should be questioned. Red sandstone boulders and cracks, yellow quartzite cliffs, grey limestone faces, […]

Utah isn’t the only state whose population shies “away from the issue of population growth and large families” (HCN, 12/22/03: Being Green in the Land of the Saints). Politicians of every stripe from every state refuse to talk about it. This, in spite of recent articles about the drought that is hammering the West while […]

Thanks for your preliminary comments on the need to address population growth in the West (HCN, 12/22/03: Being Green in the Land of the Saints). However, the issue needs to be addressed in the West, nationwide, and worldwide by people who seriously think about environmental quality and humanity’s future. It’s clear that our species has […]

As a law-abiding citizen of the United States of America, I am outraged at politicians who will not address the issue of illegal immigration. Now the whole issue is complicated by President Bush’s immigration plan (HCN, 2/2/04: Immigration reform from Washington, D.C.). This plan is not a solution to the problems and will only escalate […]

The issue of environmental consciousness cannot be framed around the issue of whether you are or are not LDS (HCN, 12/22/03: Being Green in the Land of the Saints). It’s certainly an interesting slant for the article, but whether your religion is LDS is no more an indication of your environmental slant than is race, […]

I just read with interest the essay on Mormonism and environmental ethics (HCN, 12/22/03: Being Green in the Land of the Saints). It’s always a learning experience to read about how individuals cash out their own views within the framework of a larger entity, in this case Mormonism, and the positions held by various founders […]

It appears that another good, conservation-oriented publication has succumbed to the LDS propaganda machine. We pay for a balanced publication, not just another extension of the Ensign. If I wanted more PR from the LDS, then I would get it free from the missionaries. It is not enough that the Mormons now own D.C. and […]

Conservationists should support the Owyhee Initiative, the compromise management plan for more than 3 million wild acres of southwestern Idaho (HCN, 12/8/04: Riding the middle path). If the wildly divergent interest groups that developed the initiative can hold together, Idaho Republican Sen. Mike Crapo promises to shepherd the plan through Congress this year. Idaho’s Owyhee […]

“The Gear Biz” by Hal Clifford (HCN, 10/27/03: The Gear Biz) acknowledged the deleterious effects of NAFTA and the WTO on U.S. manufacturing jobs, but failed to provide the perspective of U.S. workers put out of work by such policies. What do the Navajos who used to work in the Osprey textile factory have to […]

I was very moved by Ben Long’s essay on the impending extinction of Montana’s sturgeon (HCN, 9/29/03: Extinction — by the clock). His piece captured in a few words the finality of the extinction of species that link modern man to prehistory. I was reminded of the evocative words of William Beebe (1906): “The beauty […]

HCN’s Owyhee Initiative coverage (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the middle path) shows that this paper is firmly mired in the livestock-industry myths of the Old West, and is unwilling to see beyond the boots, buckles and he-men, to understand that we must change how we treat our public wild lands and waters, if native ecosystems are […]

In “Riding the middle path,” (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the middle path) High Country News explores the efforts of Owyhee County citizens to achieve consensus on how to manage thousands of acres of public lands. The article rightly points out that this effort is an arduous one, as folks with widely varying interests, dreams, and backgrounds […]

The HCN article on the Owyhee Initiative was superficial, misleading and omitted several key points (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the middle path). None of the ostensibly green groups at the table is fighting for what is best for this ecosystem: real wilderness on a big enough scale for native wildlife to flourish. The Idaho Conservation League, […]

As a graduate of the College of Idaho (Albertson College) I was excited and encouraged to read your recent article on the Owyhee Initiative (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the middle path). The College of Idaho is only an hour from the wild landscape of the Owyhee Canyonlands. I spent many a weekend escaping into the rugged […]

High Country News has done a disservice to the West by publishing the article, “Riding the middle path” (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the middle path). The article and its fawning photographs fail to fully describe the condition of the Owyhee landscape or the costs to the public of maintaining ranching there. It sadly reinforces HCN’s reputation […]

I just read “Riding the middle path” (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the middle path). As a writer and photographer, I am acutely aware of how word and photo choice influences perception. And once again HCN proves that it is incapable of writing about the livestock industry without being a sop to the industry. When I read […]

I write in response to your cover story on Los Alamos National Laboratory’s waste-cleanup practices (HCN, 11/24/03: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut). I was most interested in how you would approach the subject, being a subscriber to HCN and a great fan for roughly a decade, a conservation activist in northern New […]

The article on the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP) paints an overly negative picture of the effort (HCN, 11/10/03: San Diego’s Habitat Triage). The MSCP took a fragmented ecosystem within a major metropolitan area — otherwise on the road to oblivion — and created an interconnected reserve system. Indeed, the most developable large […]

Laura Paskus’ one-sided article, “New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut,” has largely parroted the viewpoint of the local anti-LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) organizations (HCN, 11/24/03: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut). I am a LANL employee, although the opinions expressed here are my own. The problems with this article begin […]

Bully! Bully! Bully! Andrew Gulliford’s essay about President Teddy Roosevelt should be read by every card-carrying Republican (HCN, 10/13/03: Where’s Teddy when you need him?). I am and always have been a Republican. I would challenge that, between Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, we Republicans have produced some of the most significant conservation and protection legislation […]