The waning power of Alaskan lawmakers

My thanks to Emma Marris for saving me precious time and money with her reviews of the wilderness-themed books by Jason Mark and Fred Pearce (“Wilderness redefined and defended,” HCN, 9/14/15). As she suggests, the authors’ purist non-interventionist OK with extinction philosophy will alienate many readers, but I think “revolt” might be a more accurate […]

In “It’s time to end Custer worship,” (HCN, 8/3/15), writer Todd Wilkinson asks whether George Custer should “be celebrated as a hero of conquest or recast as the bigoted, egotistical, narcissistic villain he apparently was? Does he deserve to have his name attached to towns, counties, a state park and a national forest, or should […]

The article “On life support,” (HCN, 8/3/15), on the efforts to “save” the silvery minnow, is so depressing. Yes, I realize this is a desert river, not like the rivers of British Columbia. I’ve travelled often in the Southwest and subscribed to HCN for well over a decade, so there were no surprises here. Yet this […]

I found your story “Sea lions feast on Columbia salmon” (HCN, 8/17/15) both interesting and disturbing. That some are ready to kill these animals due to their apparent localized “over-population” is the very definition of hypocrisy. Humans have over-populated the planet since the 1960s, and our over-consumption and careless actions have put the entire planet […]