Letter to the editor

Dear HCN, As an anthropologist with an active interest in primatology, I find Stephen Gies’ letter of response (HCN, 10/26/98) to Ken Wright’s review of David Petersen’s hunting book Elkheart interesting (HCN, 9/28/98). Gies suspects that Petersen’s psychological need to hunt is based on “primordial revitalized manhood.” This is a pretty good intuitive generalization. A […]

Dear HCN, After reading Stephen Gies’ tirade against hunting (HCN, 10/26/98), I felt compelled to clarify the logic in his ethical position. From his letter, his position can be summed up in two statements: 1) Killing and eating domesticated animals is ethical, and 2) Killing and eating wild animals is unethical. That is, it is […]

Dear HCN, I found it ironic and disturbing that the same issue containing an article decrying the hate crime in Laramie had a letter cheering the hate crime in Vail and an opinion piece loosely excusing it (HCN, 11/9/98). Whether you like the Vail decision or not, it was shaped by public involvement and scrutiny. […]

Dear HCN, In its single-minded pursuit of ever-increasing profits and greater market share, it seems Vail has finally stirred some resistance from folks not overly concerned with such niceties as the legality of their actions, and who exhibit a downright healthy disdain for the property of large corporations. Well, God bless the Earth Liberation Front! […]

Dear HCN, Once again I am treated to the inane and meretricious propaganda of an “ethical, wildlife-loving hunter” in Ken Wright’s review of David Petersen’s book Elkheart (HCN, 9/28/98). Mr. Petersen expounds the same logically absurd argument that tries to justify recreational hunting not as the macabre sport it is, but as a need for […]

Dear HCN, In reading your Sept. 14 article, “A county in Nevada assaults a river,” I was struck by the similarities occurring here in Montana. The U.S. Forest Service is removing culverts, obliterating roads and dumping tons of sediment into bull trout streams. But in contrast to the Nevada situation, this seems to be “good […]

Dear HCN, Dressed as Grammaw Maudie Miller in 1843, whose brother Nathan is a mountain man, I do a living history story about trailblazers of the Oregon Trail. I tell about mountain men who opened up their 2,000-mile horse and pack-mule caravan routes to wagons by 1840, making possible the great migrations that opened and […]

Dear HCN, One climbing bolt the size of my finger, left on a rock face, is not the problem. One load of lead pellets, shot over a marsh, is not the problem. The problem is the cumulative debris of climbing bolts (and lead shot), and of over-use which permanently and cumulatively scars the landscape (HCN, […]

Dear HCN, Tom Sheridan says “paralysis’ brought about by lawsuits to enforce the Endangered Species Act will result in the fragmentation and subdivision of every grassland valley in the state of Arizona (HCN, 6/8/98). It seems much more likely to me, but I could be wrong, that if enforcement of the Endangered Species Act results […]

Dear HCN, Let me see if I have this right: Alaska Republican Rep. Don Young is concerned that some public employees may be “leaking” information about public lands (HCN, 9/14/98) to members of the public? Yikes! Wally Elton Springfield, Vermont This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Yikes!.

Dear HCN, It appears that there is some misunderstanding between Evan Cantor and myself concerning the status of Euphorbia myrsinites (donkeytail spurge). Cantor originally (-It rhymes with scourge’) claimed that the plant was a “fast-moving, aggressive invader” that was taking over “prairie and foothill meadows’ and that the plant will “soon be everywhere” (HCN, 6/22/98). […]

Dear HCN, Normally, I try to respect everyone and their opinion. I might not agree with them. I might even feel forced to oppose them if they take action I feel is in error. But I respect their opinions, nevertheless. But I draw the line at the unmitigated and ridiculous arrogance of Stephen Lyons in […]

Dear HCN, Shame on you for printing the bureaucratic babble Fees Please Visitors … without giving equal time to Scott Silver (Bulletin Board, HCN, 6/22/98). I worked for the Park Service, BLM and Forest Service for a quarter of a century. I know self-serving government propaganda when I see it. Even if their new fee […]

Dear HCN, Robert Nold’s dismissal of the threat posed by non-native species is a classic case of denial (HCN, 8/3/98). By his own admission, he has “grown about 2,000 species of plants … and few have shown any “irreversible” tendencies to invade native habitats.” Observation has shown me that “a few” is all it takes. […]

Dear HCN, In your coverage of the Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission’s report (HCN, 6/22/98) I was struck by a quote attributed to Denise Fort, chairman of the Advisory Commission: “The traditional control of Western water has largely been federal because the federal government has had such a major role in the construction of […]

Dear HCN, Climbing certainly touched a sensitive nerve with some readers (HCN, 9/14/98). The reactions (I should say counterattacks) brought forth complaints ranging far from fixed anchors to mountain bikes and hang gliders and even to garbage and toilet paper. Most of the writers lectured climbers for not sharing their, presumably, better wilderness ethic. One […]

Dear HCN, Because I am currently involved in a heated wilderness debate myself, Christina Nealson’s essay about cellular phones in wilderness areas caught my eye (HCN, 8/17/98). In the Grand Canyon where I work, as elsewhere, the debate over what constitutes a wilderness experience and the appropriate role of the federal government in prescribing exacting […]

Dear HCN, I used to assume that those who played in the backcountry were sympathetic to those who fought to protect it. But a new mind set, a category, perhaps even a generation of people seems to be taking form. Spawned by the glossy images of outside-oriented magazines, there are now hordes of “been there, […]

Dear HCN, Regarding Armando Menocal’s question about whether or not a bolt or rappel sling should be considered an “installation” under the 1964 Wilderness Act – these words being the key phrase for the Forest Service ban on bolts – my answer is clearly yes (HCN, 8/17/98). You are drilling a hole, inserting a piece […]

Rock climbers = litter Dear HCN, Armando Menocal needs to open his eyes (HCN, 8/17/98). Rock climbing in wilderness causes impacts which are inappropriate to areas where the signs of man are to remain unseen. Bolts, nylon straps, chalk marks and bare patches left when lichen is removed by climbing shoes are unsightly. The trails […]