Letter to the editor

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, […]

Dear HCN, The August 19th issue’s front-page photo of the Denver Water Department signboard imploring people to take action and conserve water reminded me that yes, we are having a drought here in Colorado. Well, there have been other clues as well, such as the scorched brown hillsides, a summer with almost no measurable rainfall, […]

Killer bee corrections Dear HCN, As a commercial, sideline and hobbyist beekeeper (at different times in my life) for 30 years, it was interesting to see HCN cover the Africanized bee story (HCN, 6/24/02). Unfortunately, you did not cover it well. Let me try to indicate why I say this with quotes from your story […]

Bee story belongs in a tabloid Dear HCN, I can’t let the cover story “The BUZZ business” (HCN, 6/24/02) pass without comment. While I wouldn’t dispute the fact that Africanized bees can react to disturbances with ferocity, the author chooses to take an unnecessarily hysterical approach to the subject. For example, while it may be […]

The author responds Thank you, Chuck Hunt and Tom Theobald, for help on clarifying some facts. Bees cannot hear, but killer bees react to vibrations such as lawnmowers, sudden movements and exhalations of breath, so I would not recommend that anyone accompany Mr. Hunt if he shouts in the face of killer bees. The word […]