In the fight over a Bears Ears national monument, complicated questions arise about who has a claim on the land. Also in this issue, logging battles in Canada and Alaska and climate change’s threat to a beloved berry.

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Ballot obstruction

Citizens’ ballot initiatives are much in the news right now, and we have used them to good effect in Arizona despite opposition from the governor and state Legislature (“Taking initiative,” HCN, 10/3/16). Unable to prevent initiatives, they have taken to making them more difficult to present. Each voter signature sheet is now limited to only…

by Nicholas J. Bleser

The presence of prairie dogs

As a rangeland ecologist, I was somewhat disturbed by this article and the point being made (“Slaughter of the Innocents,” HCN, 9/5/16). Prairie dogs are on the author’s property because conditions are conducive for them, especially the depth and type of soils. The odds are that the “juniper forest” referred to was not the original…

by Mitchel R. White

Celebrating complexity

Thank you for this rich issue on the Borderlands and the idea of borders (“Frontera Incognita,” HCN, 9/19/16). Complex ideas and beautiful writing in every article! Thanks also for taking a stand on the election. I imagine that it is always a difficult editorial decision (although perhaps not so difficult this year), but I appreciate…

by Anna Wilde

Longs Peak exposed

Thank you for publishing the John Herrick photo of “The Narrows” on Longs Peak (“Photo contest winners,” HCN, 10/3/16). During my dozen-year tenure on the Colorado Front Range, I often considered trekking to the summit of Longs, but never actually did. One of the reasons was that I’d read vague mentions of a stretch that…

by Ray Schoch

Movements, waning and waxing

Ten months ago, when a small group of anti-federal agitators occupied the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Oregon, HCN produced a package of stories about the seemingly revitalized Sagebrush Rebellion. Armed with guns and cellphones and backed by political forces eager to put federal lands in the hands of state and private interests, these…

by Paul Larmer

Save the West, build Trump’s wall

Shame on you, HCN! You claim to “care about the West,” yet you’ve just devoted an entire issue, “Purple Rain: How Donald Trump’s Divisive Campaign Is Repainting the Political Map” (HCN, 10/3/16), to smearing the one candidate who might actually do something about the root cause of the destruction of the West’s wide-open spaces ––…

by Maggie Willson

Staffing, and a trip outside Paonia

At the end of September, High Country News staff and board traveled to Berkeley, California, for one of our annual meetings. We love these trips afield, where we get to connect with members of the broader HCN community. One highlight was a talk by Dave Rolloff, professor of recreation, parks and tourism administration at California…

by Lyndsey Gilpin

As goes Germany

Your special issue “Frontera Incognita” was great, but I have a bit of a bone to pick on your editorial note (“In search of a borderless West,” HCN, 9/19/16). Very properly, you take Donald Trump to task for his misguided proposals on walls and immigration. But you offer no real counter to it. I have been…

by Marcel Rodriguez