Mad Max rides into the West

A little clarification is needed to better understand the setting of “The Wetland Wars” (HCN, 5/11/15). The Los Angeles River did not flow continuously through the Ballona Wetlands previous to the calamitous flood of 1825. A flood that had occurred 10 years earlier caused the river to shift westward, away from the hundreds of square […]

There is something missing from “Trade winds blow through the West” (HCN, 5/25/15).  There is much talk about poor Rifle and other communities suffering from depressed natural gas production, and the hopes that the Trans-Pacific Partnership will once again increase production and, therefore, jobs in the West. This is undoubtedly true. But what about the obvious […]

Reader Brandt Mannchen takes issue with rainwater harvesting as presented in a recent article (“Letters,” HCN, 5/25/15; “Tucson’s rain-catching revolution” HCN, 4/27/15)). He deplores local Tucson water expert Brent Cluff’s belief that “water harvesting could support unlimited growth.” I know of Brent Cluff but have never heard of and certainly do not share this opinion. […]

“The Wetland Wars” struck a chord with me. I went to Loyola Marymount University from 1960 to 1963. The campus was above and just to the east of Ballona Creek. In that era, it was known as “the creek.” After a long day, I often walked around the area to capture some of the tranquility […]

In her May 11 “Writers on the Range,” Kathleen Dean Moore laments the view of the North Dakota oilfields at night from her jetliner window at 31,000 feet. And, admittedly, vistas with drilling rigs, pumpjacks and gas flares leave something to be desired, compared with vast sweeps of virgin prairie. The excellent article on Theodore […]