Letter to the editor

Dear HCN, I am writing to express the Public Lands Foundation’s (PLF) opposition to the transfer of 1,640 acres of public land to the LDS Church (HCN, 9/30/02). The Public Lands Foundation is a nonprofit national conservation organization whose members are from the general public and retired BLM employees, all who are interested in the […]

Dear HCN, Following the lead of our Illustrious and Infallible Leader, Emperor Bush the Second, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez has declared war on the endangered silvery minnow. Chavez has promised to appeal the decision of Judge James Parker, Chief Justice of the U.S. 10th Circuit Court (HCN, 10/14/02: Albuquerque is dragged into Rio Grande fight). […]

Dear HCN, I think you missed the point when you spoke of only one side of the Martin’s Cove story being told on a Mormon-owned site (HCN, 9/30/02: This land holds a story the church won’t tell). The issue of a “holier-than-thou” attitude that led to movement from New York to Ohio to Missouri to […]

Greetings, HCN, Readers of Scott Bridges’s letter (HCN, 9/30/02: This land holds a story the church won’t tell) may be interested in knowing that Ed Abbey most likely artistically pilfered and altered Bishop Love’s carnotite-eating from a true red, white and blue American specimen of idiotic boosterism. In 1984, Edgemont, S.D., former Mayor Matt Brown […]

Dear HCN, Thank you for your open and honest article by Ray Ring regarding Montana’s governor as a poor choice to lead the West (HCN, 8/5/02). Whatever could the Western Governors’ Association be thinking of to select Gov. Martz as their leader? Ray has written a timely, straightforward commentary that should be a wake-up call […]

Dear HCN, Jeff Golden’s “Modest forest proposal for President Bush” (HCN, 9/16/02: A modest forest proposal), while sound in its reasoning, has one fatal flaw: People like George Bush could care less about common sense in regard to public-lands management, Forest Service fire suppression, and forest health policies and practices. The only thing people like […]

Dear HCN, In “This land holds a story the church won’t tell,” (HCN, 9/30/02: The Royal Squeeze) your editor, Ray Ring, writes that “historic preservation advocates and environmental groups … fear the giveaway (that is, the sale of 940 publicly owned acres of the Mormon Trail to the Mormon Church) would set a precedent for […]

Dear HCN, The article on water problems in the Imperial Valley (HCN, 9/16/02: The Royal Squeeze) was interesting, informative, and in my view, a good example of HCN‘s dedication to balanced reporting, which is especially difficult with hot-button issues like water, salmon and prairie dogs. I was struck by one of the figures stated in […]

Dear HCN, As I read the latest issue (HCN, 9/02/02: EPA puts cleanup in local hands), I was fascinated by the article relating the drinking of untreated lake water by Christine Whitman and others. I was struck not only by the ignorance of doing such a thing, but by the ironic similarity to an incident […]

Dear HCN, I appreciated your coverage of the coalbed methane controversy in your latest issue (HCN, 9/2/02: Backlash). However, despite your usual dose of comprehensive analysis, I noticed one glaring absence * where is Colorado Rep. Scott McInnis in all this? Given Mr. McInnis’ tireless advocacy for local control (when it comes to forest policy), […]

Dear HCN, I just want to thank you for Jeff Golden’s piece about finding the middle ground in the forest management debate (HCN, 9/16/02: A modest forest proposal for President Bush). We need more sensible, thoughtful people who understand the situation to reflect and contribute their thinking on how we can preserve wilderness, reduce huge […]

Dear HCN, Paolo Bacigalupi’s NIMBY status used to sound more selfish to me in the past than it does now (HCN, 9/2/02: A NIMBY and proud of it). The major reason for my change of heart is my awareness that there is more than one “self” involved in being a NIMBY. His rant points toward […]

Dear HCN, One of the authentic icons of 20th century Wyoming and the West is gone. Dr. J. David Love, known to many as a great geologist and to many others as simply a friend, died Aug. 23 (HCN, 9/16/02: A legend of the land). He was 89. His humble beginnings as a ranch boy […]

Dear HCN, High Country News disappointed readers of Writers on the Range last month by printing the nonsensical diatribe of Frank Carroll (“Logging is Beginning to Look a Little Better,” Jackson Hole Guide, 7/31/02). He blames the Sierra Club and Center for Biological Diversity, and “their actions over the last two decades” for the recent […]

Dear HCN, Normally informative and refreshing, the paper stepped in a hole with “Anatomy of Fire” as a cover article (HCN, 7/8/02:The anatomy of FIRE). As a wildland firefighter and Forest Service employee, I had hoped for the arrival of some scientific (“anatomy” made me think we were really going to get into it) exploration, […]

Dear HCN, Myles Traphagen, (HCN, 6/24/02:Cross lawsuit divisive, petty), commenting on a May 13 article, “Does desert cross cross the line?” characterizes as “frivolous” and “petty” the American Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit whose object is to have a six-foot metal cross removed from its unlawful installation in California’s Mojave National Preserve: “In an age where […]

Dear HCN, Michelle Nijhuis was mistaken when she wrote that the recent transfer of some Death Valley National Park land to the Timbisha Shoshone “was the first time the Park Service had ever ceded land to a tribe” (HCN, 8/5/02:Another way to win back the land). In 1975, about one-third of Grand Canyon National Park’s […]

Dear HCN, In response to Joy York’s letter to the editor, “Wolf killing hard to swallow” (HCN, 7/10/02:Wolf killing hard to swallow), we are stunned to see an accusation that Defenders of Wildlife is “in the business of killing wolves.” How that statement could possibly be made about an organization that has done so much […]

Dear HCN, In the long run, many well-intentioned environmental groups, with their stubborn resistance to sound forest-management techniques, will do far more damage to our forests than the timber industry. Loggers often cut too many trees, but many environmentalists, in their resistance to cutting any trees, may bring about a total conflagration. I’m a nature […]

Dear HCN, Thanks for the 13 May issue, with the discussion of how past changes in North American ecosystems affect decisions we now face in the West. You might say that those who forget prehistory are doomed to repeat it. The letters from Linda Driskill (HCN, 6/24/02:Review gives only one view) and Kali Kaliche (HCN, […]