Letter to the editor

Dear HCN, As a Sierra Club member and former resident of New Mexico, I was very impressed with the “zero cow” initiative article, for it highlights the complexity of how to both use and protect public lands (HCN, 2/26/01: ‘Zero-Cow’ initiative splits Sierra Club). In the past, when the proverbial pendulum supported loggers, miners, ranchers […]

Dear HCN, Although I appreciated Lisa Church’s article on “Cloudrock,” the proposed luxury resort development in Moab (HCN, 3/26/01: Luxury looms over Moab), two important pieces of the story were missed. When Church describes the developer of the proposed Cloudrock lodge as “the Salt Lake-based Moab Mesa Land Company (MMLC),” she gets both her geography […]

Dear HCN, Reading Ben Long’s story in your March 12 issue, “Yellowstone’s last stampede,” was like getting a kick in the stomach. Who are these pea-brains on their disgusting machines that they can treat the park as though it’s their own personal Disneyland? They obviously care nothing for the land or the animals who must […]

Dear HCN, Out of Edward Abbey’s novel, The Monkey Wrench Gang, came the term, “eco-terrorist,” defined as an extremist who so radically loved the ecosystems that sustain the earth, that he tried to protect them by “monkeywrenching” the tools of big extractive industry — dozers, dams and draglines — thus destroying the industrial juggernaut that […]

Dear HCN, I would like to respond to Glenn Koepke’s letter, “Don’t glorify Babbitt” (HCN, 3/12/01: Don’t glorify Babbitt). Mr. Koepke presents his arguments with enviable skill, and articulates what may be the majority position in the West regarding public-lands management – that the lands exist to be utilized in traditional ways, to produce timber, […]

Dear HCN, Allen Best (“The mythic West and the billionaire,” HCN, 2/26/01: The mythic West and the billionaire) is right on target. Artists who’ve romanticized the West, often with corporate subsidies, have tended to blind us to the dark side of our history. The paintings are beautiful but isn’t art, and all the arts, supposed […]

Dear HCN, In Mike Stark’s article, “Will logging save the spotted owl” (HCN, 3/12/01: Will logging save the spotted owl?), he quotes Joe Keating, federal forest coordinator for the Sierra Club, “All in all, it’s just a very bad plan.” Later Keating expands, “The real reason (for this plan) is to have a sustainable forestry […]

Dear HCN, Megan Lardner’s story, “Divided waters” (HCN, 3/12/01: Divided waters), provoked a strong, visceral response in me. She certainly has the ability to observe and to describe what she sees. What she saw stirred my gut. To have a metropolitan border area of over 2 million persons, some of whom have to depend on […]

Dear HCN, I appreciated the Hotline pointing out that Utah is slaughtering the mascot of the SLC Olympic games (HCN, 3/12/01: State to coyote hunters: Let the games begin). Each time I see the California flag, I imagine (that’s all I can do, given limited funds) full-page ads in the L.A., San Francisco and Sacramento […]

Dear HCN, I don’t really want to quarrel with the main argument of Allen Best’s essay, “The mythic West and the billionaire” (HCN, 2/26/01: The mythic West and the billionaire), but I think two observations concerning Thomas Moran might complicate it a bit. In the first place, Best is simply wrong in his assertion that […]

Dear HCN, It’s time to remind you and indirectly Jon Margolis that sentence fragments are not particularly convincing or fun to read and that a comma is not a semicolon. From “The power of love, and its opposite”: “At the cost of a political firestorm that a politically shaky administration can ill afford.” Isn’t the […]

Dear HCN, The other day I touched snow for the first time since 1995, when my wife and I fled the snow, ice and cold of Colorado after 50 years of residency. We moved to Southern California, where we could view the cursed stuff only on mountains far in the distance. A pickup truck just […]

Dear HCN, “Zero-Cow initiative splits Sierra Club” (HCN, 2/26/01: ‘Zero-Cow’ initiative splits Sierra Club) fails to recognize that the Club is neither “zero-cut” nor “zero-cud.” In its attempt to simplify it misses the real story. While the Club has a position that advocates an end to all commercial logging on public lands, private use and […]

Dear HCN, Your article on the Sierra Club’s zero-cow initiative (HCN, 2/26/01: ‘Zero-Cow’ initiative splits Sierra Club), as with so many pieces that HCN does related to grazing issues, once again misrepresents the issues by trying to create a black and white – either/or – situation. The article portrays the Sierra Club’s zero-grazing initiative as […]

Dear HCN, I’m writing in response to the article “Zero-Cow initiative splits Sierra Club” (HCN, 2/26/01: ‘Zero-Cow’ initiative splits Sierra Club). Before I left New Mexico to pursue a graduate degree, I worked for several academic, nongovernmental, and federal entities as a field biologist. This work took me all over the Southwest, and to my […]

Dear HCN, As a forester for 20-odd years and as a follower of HCN’s coverage of Western resource issues, I still hold out hope for improvements in the effectiveness and acceptability of public resource stewardship, despite the ongoing media and propaganda warfare. Overall, I agree with a minority of HCN’s slants on things, disagree with […]

Dear HCN, I read Ed Marston’s article, titled “Bush administration faces a reborn Interior,” and got a funny feeling in my stomach. I believe Ed is way off base believing the Bush administration will not succeed in using the so-called “reborn Interior” as the typical exploiters’ treasure trove. I see no evidence from the choices […]

Dear HCN, In his Bulletin Board story on the BLM’s OHV Strategy (HCN, 1/29/01: Agency will try to track trails), Matt Jenkins wrote that the Strategy “will now include … possibly even human-powered vehicles like mountain bikes.” It’s important to note that BLM chose to not include bicycling in its OHV Strategy. BLM’s decision came […]

Dear HCN, Jon Margolis has my hackles up again. In his article about weirdness in Washington, D.C. (HCN, 1/29/01: Weirdness abounds in Washington), I expected comments on Clinton paying off like a broken slot machine for “rich” patrons, or the Clintons registering for gifts (before her confirmation) so the payola would beat the ethics deadline […]

Dear HCN, I thoroughly enjoyed your essay, “Rearranging the grid” (HCN, 1/29/01: Rearranging the grid), as I do most of what you write. I have become a little jaded at the stridence of environmental writing today, the constant inferences that, indeed, the sky is falling. After 77 years, I know better. Your graphic description of […]