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An HCN article, “Frontier myths crash into Trump’s border wall” (HCN, 9/16/19), recently came across my Facebook news feed. I’m a fairly new subscriber and just started following along on social media, and I was mildly shocked at the complete lack of nuanced thought in the comments. That’s the typical online climate today, but I […]

Based on the photos accompanying “A high-flying act in Olympic National Park” (HCN, 9/2/19), it looks like your reporter participated in an exciting adventure. However, the article unwittingly reflects a false narrative that has been used to justify the park’s management goals for more than four decades. The transfer of mountain goats to other areas, […]

I’ve never been a fan of science fiction and was skeptical of your “speculative journalism” issue (HCN, 8/19/19), so I only skimmed most of it. But the article on Glacier National Park 50 years in the future got me thinking about how much the West has changed since I moved here 46 years ago. Winters […]

Suggesting that Robert “Lavoy” Finicum “was later killed by law enforcement at a traffic stop during the (Malheur) occupation” vastly underreports the facts of that law enforcement contact (“Extremists appropriate Indigenous struggles for violent ends,” HCN, 9/16/19). Mr. Finicum blew through a stop, nearly hit a law enforcement officer, asked to be shot and reached […]

Anna Smith’s article on the challenges the Cow Creek Band has faced in regaining and now managing forest lands in Oregon is the kind of piece that both informs and challenges readers. The challenge thrown down by some tribal members is quite provocative: Shawn Fleek’s quote — “The conservation movement began as a way for […]

Is HCN a news journal or a creative writing magazine or simply fake news? As a professional educator and writer, I was deeply disturbed by the Aug. 19 issue. I use HCN as a classroom resource, as I hope others do as well. I teach critical thinking and journalistic skepticism along with the regular course […]

Start with Kim Raff’s excellent cover shot (HCN, 9/2/19). Add Paige Blankenbuehler’s note on accountability, San Juan County, Utah’s Indigenous reversal of power, and a positive story on our polygamous neighbors, plus the opening up of Colorado’s state trust lands to public access. Mix in biocrust skin grafts, Wyoming’s self-dug coal-pit woes, and flying goats […]

I certainly agree with the article, “Forest Service might limit public comments,” (HCN, 7/22/19). It is not that they “might,” though, in my opinion, but that they will. I have made personal comments to the agency, and I can see how the U.S. Forest Service plans to remove opportunities for public comments by categorically excluding most […]

You’ve heard the old saying: “You can take the policy wonk out of D.C., but you can’t take the D.C. out of the policy wonk” — or something to that effect (“Critics wary of moving BLM,” HCN, 7/22/19). I find it pretty humorous, the recent administrative trend to move federal agencies out of Washington, D.C., […]

Anyone with business experience knows that you have to be in the meeting and at the table to influence policy. And crucial decisions happen in hallway encounters. Distancing Bureau of Land Management leadership from the Washington, D.C., power center (“Critics wary of moving BLM,” HCN, 7/22/19) will weaken the BLM leadership’s impact. This plan puts BLM political appointees […]

Unfortunately, with most environmental problems, agreement on solutions is not easy to achieve (“Losing Lake Coeur d’Alene,” HCN, 6/24/19). I encourage you to keep up your efforts to provide scientific and economic reasons why we should continue to cooperate for the long-term good of all members or society. I was born and raised in southern Oregon, lived most […]