What it’s like to fight wildfires in the West

I was touched and saddened by Ben Long’s eloquent lament on the extinction of the Selkirk caribou (“A quiet goodbye to the Selkirk caribou,” HCN, 5/28/18). He rightly points out the necessity of ecosystem services provided by healthy forests to avoid the “emergency room” of the Endangered Species Act. He closes by wishing that America […]

Thank you, Anna V. Smith, for your article “Reclaiming the Klamath” (HCN, 6/11/18). And thank you, Amy Cordalis, for your hard work toward this end. A recreation outreach meeting was held in Copco, California, on June 12 by the Klamath River Renewal Corporation. Four community liaisons gave a presentation to an unfriendly, disruptive audience. Dam […]

“Pay for Prey” (HCN, 7/23/18), written by Gloria Dickie, nicely detailed Oregon’s efforts to manage both ranchers and wolves. Economic compensation programs exist in other Western states grappling with ongoing wolf colonization. Concerns raised in both camps with regard to data accuracy and program graft also persist. Still, cultural divides have always best clarified this issue, […]

Congratulations to Anna V. Smith on her great article (“Reclaiming the Klamath,” HCN, 6/11/18). It’s really well done. I was a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service managing the Klamath River Restoration Program from 1975 to 1980, and I worked closely with the Yurok Tribe, gathering salmon harvest and population data on the […]