Letter to the editor

Ray Ring’s wonderful story on fire in the West (HCN, 5/26/03: A losing battle) catches the deep tension we still have between a wild and tame West. Fire, just like grizzlies, drought, pine beetles and volcanoes, is a powerful force that has shaped Western ecosystems for millennia. One side of our Western culture has struggled […]

Tweeti Blancett’s article on fighting the gas drilling was timely, after just hearing Alan Greenspan expound on the need for increased drilling to improve our economy (HCN, 6/9/03: Why I fight: The coming gas explosion in the West). I appreciate her clarification that this is not a partisan issue. Nearly all issues these days seem […]

As an Albuquerque resident of 13 years, I read with interest your story “Truce remains elusive in Rio Grande water fight,” (HCN, 8/4/03: Truce remains elusive in Rio Grande water fight). The story was very good, but one bit of relevant information was not in the story. ALL of Albuquerque’s drinking water comes from wells. […]

Your cover story, “Pipe Dreams,” says water always moves to the big money in the cities (HCN, 8/4/03: Pipe Dreams). So does everything else. It’s the way the system works, but it’s not just. Why is it so difficult for the West to install a democratic water distribution system? Because the country doesn’t have a […]

In your recent issue on oil and gas development in the Rockies (HCN, 8/18/03: Gas crisis puts Rockies in hot seat), you printed an industry group chart which purports to display the onerous “seasonal stipulations” attached to many BLM oil and gas leases, an example (in the industry’s view) of the “restrictions and impediments” hindering […]

The article “Invasion of the Rock Jocks” presented a stilted picture of the climbing community’s commitment to environmental protection (HCN, 7/7/03: Invasion of the Rock Jocks). While pointing out the importance of educating young climbers and meeting the challenges of new trends in the sport, the article fails miserably to answer its own questions. Are […]

When it comes to fire, we need to get going on some concrete changes and stop pussyfooting around (HCN, 5/26/03: A losing battle). I can’t speak for spruce stands in Wyoming, or Doug-fir old growth in Oregon, or redwood groves in California, but let me say this about ponderosa forests and the sky islands of […]

As a consultant who is involved with restoration silviculture from the ponderosa pine forests of New Mexico to the Oregon white oak forests of the Willamette Valley, I have been frustrated with the lack of understanding by the general public, as well as federal and state land managers, of the reasons behind the increase in […]

Wildfires are again raging as heat and drought continue across the West. Now that Congress has recessed without providing any funding for firefighting, the U.S. Forest Service is expected to keep fighting the fires, and to take the money needed for that task from other areas in its already shrinking budget. Though our national parks […]

Matt Jenkins did a good job of tying together the complex threads of the Vidler Water Company story (HCN, 8/4/03: Pipe Dreams), a mind-boggling tale of the potential horrors of water commodification and the boundless greed of resource predators like Vidler. Vidler certainly deserves our wary attention, but it is also important to point out […]

I am writing to clarify a statement regarding policy positions of The Wilderness Society in the debate over fire and fuels legislation (HCN, 7/7/03: As fires rage, governors counsel discretion). I believe the statement that we support “loosening up environmental laws” could be taken wrong and wish to set the record straight. The Wilderness Society […]

I must respond to the article, “Back on the range?” (HCN, 7/7/03). The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes were paid TWICE for the land that became the National Bison Range: Once at $1.56 per acre in the early 1900s, and again in 1971, when the tribal government successfully sued the federal government and won something […]

The tribes believe the payments did not cover what they lost. The 1971 court ruling only calculated the land’s market value, not the other economic and cultural losses the tribes sustained when the federal government divided up their reservation, and sold off more than 400,000 acres to non-Indians. On the question of dollars alone, a […]

Examining the attitudes, rhetoric and actions of the new generation of rock climbers is illustrative of an ethic that places personal “freedom” above conservation (HCN, 7/7/03: Invasion of the rock jocks). Repeatedly, The Access Fund has, as the executive director proudly proclaims, “played hardball with land managers,” by associating with the very worst stewards of […]

I’m following the debate about bicycles vs. horsepackers vs. hikers with the same bemusement that I do the debate of wilderness vs. protected vs. multiple use. The real essence of the debate is that some fat guy in a quad runner with a case of Bud Lite, a carton of Marlboros, and an AR15 is […]

Your story about the hand-over of three national wildlife refuges to a Montana tribe oversimplified a very complex issue (HCN, 7/7/03: Back on the range?). Despite your portrayal of talks between the Department of the Interior and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes as a unique attempt to reunite the tribes with bison and lands […]

Thanks for showing both sides of the climbing-impact issue (HCN, 7/7/03: Invasion of the rock jocks). I am a 41-year-old who has been climbing for over 25 years. I’ve done both bolt-free traditional and bolted sport-route first ascents. As much as I would like to deny it, climbers do impact the environment in many adverse […]

In his article, “Agriculture exacts a price in the High Sierra,” Cosmo Garvin has indicted California’s Central Valley agriculture for the decline of frogs in the Sierra Nevada (HCN, 5/26/03: Agriculture exacts a price in the High Sierra). Despite the fact that pesticide residues found in mountain frogs are far below lethal levels, the argument […]

The article on frogs and pesticides is useful, but incomplete (HCN, 5/26/03: Agriculture exacts a price in the High Sierra). At a recent Rachel Carson Council seminar in Baltimore, Md., two researchers presented their findings. Tyrone Hayes of Berkeley, Calif., found, in both laboratory and field tests, that very low levels of atrazine, a pesticide […]

l Recently, High Country News and other papers ran rather long stories about Lori Piestewa, a Hopi lady in the armed forces who was killed over in Iraq (HCN, 5/26/03: The tangled messages of a servicewoman killed in combat). I doubt that many of the Hopis thought very highly of her joining the military. The […]