Letters to the editor, February 2023
Comments from readers.
FIRE CAN PRESERVE
Thank you for this article (“Femme Fire,” January 2023)! It is so inspiring on so many levels. I really appreciate that the author highlights how a hypermasculine, militaristic firefighting tradition ignores and erases so many important aspects of why fire suppression is needed and how it can be done in a way that preserves rather than destroys. Thank you.
Melanie Curry
Berkeley, California
DELICIOUS STORY
I just read with delight “Making Christmas cake in Compton” (December 2022). I wanted to give the author, Jenise Miller, a big hug after finishing the story. I could smell the wonderful aroma of those delicious spices and taste the moist goodness of her baked masterpiece! Miller makes her words come to life. Thank you for a heartfelt article.
Katherine Brown
Cochise, Arizona
WE NEED TO CHANGE
“The disappearing sagebrush sea” (December 2022) was interesting and alarming. I believe the situation is worse than the article suggests.
Humans have introduced invasive annual grasses, are responsible for starting 80%-90% of wildfires, and create conditions ripe for conifer encroachment via wildfire suppression and climate change.
We are the ones who need to “change our ways.” I hope we understand this and change our ways significantly soon, or the sagebrush sea will only be a memory.
Brandt Mannchen
Houston, Texas
THERE’S POTENTIAL
I read your article (“An Indigenous Affairs reporter reviews Alaska Daily,” Dec. 15, 2022), and right you are about Roz and Eileen. I hope the show’s writers go in a different direction. Eileen is obnoxious, arrogant, beyond a New Yorker, and she needs to be put in her place by the editor. Even some white folks don’t like how the story is going. Thanks for putting it out there. We’re rooting for Roz.
Sadie Ivan
Fairfax, California
Your review is absolutely correct. I especially agree about the show’s potential. I have learned from the contrast of the main characters the degree of change necessary to appreciate a different culture. Sometimes one way is better, as when the authorities are forced into accountability to do their jobs. It seems to me there is a balance to be achieved.
Genie Mitchell
Fort Davis, Texas
KEEP THE FOCUS ON SPECIES
It would be a mistake to deemphasize species and focus further on habitat (“The next chapter of environmental law,” November 2022). Habitat is vitally important, and protecting habitat helps protect species, but some causes of species decline aren’t easily remedied by habitat protection, such as disease, overharvest and toxins.
I’m concerned that shifting the focus would result in a decline in research and monitoring. Those efforts provide critical information necessary for species recovery. They answer important questions and offer valuable solutions. The threat posed to condors by lead poisoning would never have been discovered without attaching transmitters to condors, tracking them, recovering deceased birds and conducting necropsies. I’m not confident that any of that would have transpired under a habitat-heavy management plan.
If we’re really serious about protecting endangered species, what the Endangered Species Act needs most isn’t a habitat-centric realignment but increased funding. All listed species should have recovery plans in place, and candidate species need to be considered in a timely fashion so that the phrase “warranted but precluded” becomes obsolete. We’re in the midst of what’s been labeled Earth’s sixth extinction event. This is not the time to pivot away from species.
Joseph Belli
Pacheco Pass, California
IN GOOD HANDS
When Betsy Marston left the “Heard around the West” column, I was petrified. Today, I know the space is in good hands. Thank you.
George Ruffner
Prescott, Arizona
MORE ON YELLOWSTONE
I enjoyed “We don’t share land here” (May 2022), and hope to see more writing by Liza Black on the Yellowstone franchise. As an Indigenous woman, I recalled the problems with Taylor Sheridan’s film Wind River when I first watched the show.
Jolene Thrasher
Inuvialuit, Northwest
Territories, Canada
We welcome reader letters. Email High Country News at [email protected] or submit a letter to the editor. See our letters to the editor policy.
