Why Wildlife Services continues to kill predators, despite decades of research on nonlethal methods. Plus, how the public could pay for coal cleanup and a look at Malheur’s quieter moments.

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Immigration and population

I don’t doubt that a lot of opposition to immigration is due to nativism, as Forrest Whitman writes, but many favor lower immigration to stem overpopulation (“Western nativism has a rotten odor,” HCN, 12/21/15). U.S. population will exceed 400 million by 2050.  If we had maintained the immigration levels of the 1950s and ’60s, our…

by Lee Badger

Modern sagebrush rebels recycle old Western fantasies

Ammon and Ryan Bundy, sons of scofflaw Nevada rancher Clive Bundy, appear to have made an ambitious New Year’s resolution: Force the federal government, which has managed more than half of the American West’s lands for the past century, to relinquish them, at gun point if necessary, to the locals. Over the weekend, the Bundy…

by Paul Larmer

Respect all around

I was deeply saddened by the Dec. 7 cover’s display of animal cruelty.  The cover caption states that “neighbors helping neighbors” on branding day “is the cultural norm.” Unfortunately, inflicting pain appears to be a “cultural norm” in the cowboy culture also. I wonder how many of those “neighbors” subduing that poor animal would enjoy…

by Bob Muth

Beaver believer

Regarding Avery McGaha’s wetland article (“A desert oasis, lost and found,” HCN, 12/21/15):  Cattails are considered a weed. They overtake ponds and wetlands, crowding out native species that are more beneficial. Instead of cattails, the cienega should have native willows and cottonwoods. Instead of messing around with logs and dams of his own making, A.T.…

by Penelope M. Blair

Water for cows

The Nov. 23 stories “The city as sponge,” about Los Angeles possibly designing its way to water independence, the related story “The Revival of Mono Lake,” and the cover story, “Water Hustle,” brought back the July 16, 2015, TED Radio Hour: “Finite: Ideas about the Resources We Use and How to Make the Most of…

by Cynthia Mitchell

Cooperating for the common good

Being alone is no way to live, and so humans, being communal animals, evolved specific biological reactions to social threats. Those living on the periphery of their tribes faced increased risks of starvation, predation and early death. Today, feelings of isolation may result in nervous behavior and unhealthy physiological responses that cause the body to…

by Hugh Jameson

Home after the holidays, with bittersweet tidings

After a nice holiday break (with some of us taking more time than others), the High Country News editorial staff is finally back to work. Our first order of business involves correcting an error that squeaked into the last issue of 2015. A neighborhood struggling with an expansion of Interstate 70 in Denver (“Eastbound and…

by Paige Blankenbuehler

Human and canine coevolution

I remember the day, years ago, I first saw them, while wandering through the raggedy wildlands behind our Midwestern neighborhood. Suddenly, they appeared — a pack of dogs at the edge of the woods, looking straight at me. I froze. Surely they would advance, snarling, to take down this slow, weak suburban prey. But they…

by Paul Larmer