Letter to the editor

Why not put forests to good use? Dear HCN, With the big summer fires in full flame, and all the talk of need for “treatment” of the forests to make them less fire-prone, the question comes to mind, “Why not use all the extra trees in the forests to fuel biomass power plants?” Has anyone […]

Remember Rocky Flats Dear HCN, Several weeks ago, the White House asked Congress and the Senate to exempt the Defense Department from the environmental laws of our country in the interest of national security. Currently, Congress is evaluating this request to make the Defense Department exempt from both the Clean Air and Clean Water acts […]

Smokey is rolling in his grave Dear HCN, There are no benefits to prescribed burns that cannot be duplicated by judicious logging practices, replanting and application of a little fertilizer. The air and water pollution, destruction of resources, property and loss of wildlife (and human life!) are not worth the “perceived” benefits of wildfires. Still, […]

Dear HCN, Keep up the battle against the methane drillers (HCN, 5/27/02: Dear Friends). We in Las Animas County, Colo., have seen the impact of this industry on our environment and it is not pleasant. Our mountain water wells have gone dry, our local county and state roads are falling apart due to the heavy […]

Dear HCN, I read the issue on fire with great interest (HCN, 7/8/02: The anatomy of fire). As have so many in the West, I have mourned all that we have lost and all that we are likely to lose in the coming months and years. But I have not seen in HCN, or elsewhere, […]

Dear HCN, The recent decision by the Department of the Interior to approve the Fence Lake coal mine is at the very least a travesty (HCN, 6/24/02: The Latest Bounce). To put a place of such spiritual importance on the chopping block in order to meet the selfish, short-term needs of Phoenix stands as yet […]

Dear HCN, I read with interest and growing dismay your recent article by Ed Marston, “Restoring the West, goat by goat” (HCN, 6/24/02: Restoring the West, goat by goat). The foreign invader that is actually sucking our landscape dry is Western civilization. Tamarisk is a rugged survivor, living on land where the native species have […]

Dear HCN, We had the fantastic “theories” of Columbus “finding” North America when as many as 140 million North Americans had not “lost” it. And the “stories” of Pilgrims encountering “wilderness” when indigenous people cultivated a wide variety of crops the colonizers’ pigs wreaked havoc upon. Now in the May 13, 2002, HCN, we have […]

I appreciate the time and effort Karen Mockler put into writing the article on Wyoming’s feedgrounds (HCN, 4/29/02: Are Wyoming’s feedgrounds a hotbed of disease?) as well as the editing that was done to consolidate all the information on this complicated issue. Unfortunately, in that process, some of the essence of the interview was lost. First, the Wyoming […]

Dear HCN, In a recent article, writer Mark Matthews agonized over alleged radical shifts in philosophy and direction here at the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation (HCN, 5/27/02: Elk conservation group sharpens its ax). Our immediate response was, “Huh?” Bewildered, we’re still not sure how (or why) Matthews weaved his handful of scrap info into such […]

Dear HCN, It has taken me a week to bring myself to read the lead story “Wolf at the door” (HCN, 5/27/02: Wolf at the door). By the time “Ace” Niemeyer finished wiping out the Whitehawk pack, I was crying so much, I couldn’t see to read. That Defenders of Wildlife, to which I and […]

Dear HCN, Ray Ring’s article “Wolf at the door” (HCN, 5/27/02: Wolf at the door) gives one the impression that things are going so well with the wolf recovery program in the Northern Rockies that any day now wolves will be marching through southern Wyoming and into Colorado. Much as we’d like that to be […]

Dear HCN, If I concentrate really hard and cross my fingers behind my back, I can summon up a grain of sympathy for ranchers in Montana who lose a calf to a wolf (HCN, 5/27/02: Wolf at the door). But one group for whom my sympathy is precisely zero is hunters who go after mountain […]

Dear HCN, It is evident that most of the wolf predation of livestock occurs within national forest leases or adjacent areas which are often managed by the Bureau of Land Management. As a part owner of these lands, I think it is time that stock growers accept the fact that multiple risks exist on government-leased […]

Dear HCN, I’m sorry it took me so long to write you about “Raising a Stink: Factory dairies catch Idaho’s Magic Valley by surprise” (HCN, 4/15/02: Raising a stink). One important aspect of factory farming not addressed in your story is the inhumane and cruel treatment of dairy cows, who aren’t allowed any kind of […]

Dear HCN, “Does desert cross cross the line?” (HCN, 5/13/02: Does desert cross cross the line?). Well, maybe, but Frank Buono and the American Civil Liberties Union should apply their energies to lawsuits of a more important nature. In an age where our public lands are being assaulted by forces much more menacing than a […]

Dear HCN, While I thought Dan Flores’ thoughts in the lead article “Beyond Ecology: Restoring a Cultural Landscape” (HCN, 5/13/02: Beyond ecology: Restoring a cultural landscape) were right on, I found it bothersome in Ed Marston’s review of Flores’ book, The Natural West, to see the wiping out of the large mammals from North America’s […]

Dear HCN, Living in Yellowstone National Park, I wanted to get a first-hand opinion on the snowmobile debate. I’d read reports from the EPA, the snowmobile industry, experts on flora and fauna and everything else, but I hadn’t heard the voice that I felt knew the most: the park rangers. So I asked some park […]

Dear HCN, Your last issues are so readable and well-written, I can’t believe it’s the same paper I struggled to understand five years ago in order to better politically advocate for the environment. The way it’s being written now, I have found that high school and even junior high students can educate themselves from it. […]

Dear HCN, For someone like myself, writing to HCN has about the same benefits as a Kurd appealing to Saddam, but here goes nothing, anyway. Jon Margolis’ monument (HCN, 5/13/02: New monuments: Planning by numbers) analysis was linked to me and I had to surf it up – and as usual, Jon blows it. The […]