In this issue, we ask some big questions about wildlife conservation. In our first feature we examine the human relationship with cougars, which are surrounded in myth despite new research having drawn them out of the shadows. Our second feature asks, at a time when Colorado voters are deciding whether to reintroduce wolves, what science can provide in politics. In Idaho, we look at the residual power of Ammon Bundy, the West’s “strike anywhere” match. We report on the ways that Indian Health Service is under-serving Indigenous women. We take a look into a grassroots movement to decriminalize psychedelic mushrooms to help treat PTSD. We report on the U.S. detention system’s capacity to bankrupt families, and we talk with an author about how billionaires are changing Western communities.

Credit: Original Illustration by Sarah Gilman/HCN Credit: Original Illustration by Sarah Gilman/HCN

Download the Digital Issue

An issue for the recycling bin

WTF has gone wrong with HCN? I understand your need to diversify, but a lot of recent issues stray too far from your roots and from many readers’ interests. The January issue is another issue on cultural diversity, but this one entirely devoted to it? I always save my HCNs, looking forward to reading them…

by Mark Sterkel

Backwards thinking

In “Perfectly natural” (February 2020), Brian Calvert seems to want to redefine the term nature so that it includes humans and their machines. One of the great advances in human civilization and environmental ethics was the recognition that what we call nature was not placed on this Earth for the benefit of humankind to be…

by Jim Gibson

Bureaucrats, not NEPA, fall short

As I read Adam Sowards’ perspective, “Where NEPA fell short” (January 2020), I reminisced about my long-ago days at the Environmental Protection Agency during the second term of EPA Administrator Bill Ruckelshaus (May 18, 1983, to Jan. 4, 1985). I disagree with the assertion that NEPA fell short. It did not. It was, and still…

by Bill Christie

Conservation history

Brian Calvert’s recent commentary on the cowboy hat’s symbolism in the West is an accurate portrayal of the Trump administration’s values regarding non-whites in our society (“Worse for wear,” January 2020). However, one must be careful about conflating the ideas that Euro-American Manifest Destiny was in any way related to the creation of parks or…

by George Wuerthner

Humblingly informative

Thank you for the interview with Sergio Avila. It was informative and humbling about the many aspects of equity and social justice in preserving and exploring nature. —R. Gibbons, via email This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Humblingly informative.

by R. Gibbons

More science, please

As a reader and contributor since the 1980s, I’ve noticed a trend in the reporting. HCN used to be a paper about the Rocky Mountains, public lands and related issues. Now I see the paper becoming a periodical largely about social justice. The ultimate environmental issue — climate change — is presented as “climate justice”…

by Tom Ribe

NEPA hasn’t failed

In my mind, NEPA did not fall short, but we have (“Where NEPA fell short,” January 2020).  The only real requirement that NEPA provided was the environmental impact statement process, which gave citizens a process of public participation, review, and comment that was not optional. The reason that NEPA has not made more progress is…

by Brandt Mannchen

Offensive pandering

I’m more than a little dismayed by your interview with Sergio Avila and his great crusade to bring Mexicans into the outdoors (“Conservation justice,” February 2020). As a wildlife biologist and outdoor enthusiast, I’m offended and angered by the level of ignorance and pandering in this interview. If you wanted to get a sense of…

by Nate Gwinn

On the new issue

Congratulations on the February issue of your redesigned publication. In it was an email from Patagonia criticizing an article. It also had a full-page ad from the company. Kudos to the magazine for running an article critical of an advertiser, and kudos to Patagonia for continuing to advertise. —John Kendall, via email This article appeared…

by John Kendall

Read deeper

Having read Mary Slosson’s review of Deep River (“Wading into murky waters,” 11/11/19), I picked up the novel from my local library against my better judgment. Imagine my surprise when I found, in lieu of the reactionary, stereotype-laden, and politically tone-deaf work described by Slosson, a novel focused on the struggles of working people in…

by Seth Douglas

Strayed reporting

I’ve been reading HCN for over 30 years and have always appreciated your coverage of issues concerning the American West. But lately, many of your articles have strayed into ultra-liberal and one-sided territory, failing to examine multiple points of view. One such article was January’s “Rent control.” Rather than portraying landlords as evil money-grubbers, look…

by Michelle Schmidtke