Letter to the editor

For years, I have gotten grief for hiking and backpacking in jeans and T-shirts instead of lightweight zippered shorts/pants and sweat-wicking shirts; eating M&Ms and PB&J sandwiches, rather than custom gorp or Clif Bars; and for cross-country skiing in the same jeans and T-shirt with old 75-mm three-pin bindings. As a white guy, I let […]

In “The Elon Musk dilemma” (March 2020), Brian Calvert gets a number of facts wrong about climate change, electric vehicles, and renewable energy. He starts the column by highlighting Americans’ “beliefs” in climate change. As a climate scientist, I would like to point out that the climate doesn’t care about people’s beliefs. It doesn’t care […]

Does one person of a certain identity represent all people of that identity? Of course not (“Conservation justice,” February 2020). In his interview, Sergio Avila affirms that truth when he describes the misstep of generalizing about people. Unfortunately, Avila went on to generalize repeatedly about “white people.” What about those of us who seek knowledge […]

How could you publish an article about public transportation in the Northwest without mentioning Amtrak once (“Mass transit West” January 2020)? The Coast Starlight train runs daily from Seattle to Los Angeles. The Empire Builder runs from Portland and Seattle connecting to Spokane and Chicago and has coach and sleeper car options.  Amtrak Cascades offers […]

I retired from a career with the Bureau of Land Management in 2009. From over 33 years of public-lands stewardship “in the trenches,” I was gifted with many things, the best of which was a deep understanding of the power of the land and those who are connected to it and, of course, the natural […]

I can’t remember a time when we didn’t have High Country News in our household. I still get excited every time I see one of your stories pop up online in other platforms, even as that happens more and more regularly. I don’t know if I would have solidified myself as a Westerner as strongly […]

In “Colorado Throws Wolves to the Vote” (March 2020) Ethan Linck maintains that whether to reintroduce wolves to Colorado is a philosophical question not answerable by science. Putting wolf reintroduction to a vote is the right way to go. After all, why should Colorado Parks and Wildlife scientists enjoy privileged status when it comes to […]

In my mind, NEPA did not fall short, but we have (“Where NEPA fell short,” January 2020).  The only real requirement that NEPA provided was the environmental impact statement process, which gave citizens a process of public participation, review, and comment that was not optional. The reason that NEPA has not made more progress is […]

I’m more than a little dismayed by your interview with Sergio Avila and his great crusade to bring Mexicans into the outdoors (“Conservation justice,” February 2020). As a wildlife biologist and outdoor enthusiast, I’m offended and angered by the level of ignorance and pandering in this interview. If you wanted to get a sense of […]

Congratulations on the February issue of your redesigned publication. In it was an email from Patagonia criticizing an article. It also had a full-page ad from the company. Kudos to the magazine for running an article critical of an advertiser, and kudos to Patagonia for continuing to advertise. —John Kendall, via email This article appeared […]

Having read Mary Slosson’s review of Deep River (“Wading into murky waters,” 11/11/19), I picked up the novel from my local library against my better judgment. Imagine my surprise when I found, in lieu of the reactionary, stereotype-laden, and politically tone-deaf work described by Slosson, a novel focused on the struggles of working people in […]

I’ve been reading HCN for over 30 years and have always appreciated your coverage of issues concerning the American West. But lately, many of your articles have strayed into ultra-liberal and one-sided territory, failing to examine multiple points of view. One such article was January’s “Rent control.” Rather than portraying landlords as evil money-grubbers, look […]

WTF has gone wrong with HCN? I understand your need to diversify, but a lot of recent issues stray too far from your roots and from many readers’ interests. The January issue is another issue on cultural diversity, but this one entirely devoted to it? I always save my HCNs, looking forward to reading them […]

In “Perfectly natural” (February 2020), Brian Calvert seems to want to redefine the term nature so that it includes humans and their machines. One of the great advances in human civilization and environmental ethics was the recognition that what we call nature was not placed on this Earth for the benefit of humankind to be […]

As I read Adam Sowards’ perspective, “Where NEPA fell short” (January 2020), I reminisced about my long-ago days at the Environmental Protection Agency during the second term of EPA Administrator Bill Ruckelshaus (May 18, 1983, to Jan. 4, 1985). I disagree with the assertion that NEPA fell short. It did not. It was, and still […]

Brian Calvert’s recent commentary on the cowboy hat’s symbolism in the West is an accurate portrayal of the Trump administration’s values regarding non-whites in our society (“Worse for wear,” January 2020). However, one must be careful about conflating the ideas that Euro-American Manifest Destiny was in any way related to the creation of parks or […]

Thank you for the interview with Sergio Avila. It was informative and humbling about the many aspects of equity and social justice in preserving and exploring nature. —R. Gibbons, via email This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Humblingly informative.

As a reader and contributor since the 1980s, I’ve noticed a trend in the reporting. HCN used to be a paper about the Rocky Mountains, public lands and related issues. Now I see the paper becoming a periodical largely about social justice. The ultimate environmental issue — climate change — is presented as “climate justice” […]

“A Cherokee for Trump” and “Party Favors” (12/9/19) by Graham Lee Brewer and Will Ford seem bookends to each other, detailing really bad politics. Both portend a dismal outcome for our nation. In Brewer’s article, the Oklahoma congressman seems to enjoy contradictory support from his own fragmented people.(“There are a lot of conservative hardcore evangelical Cherokees who believe […]

The kindergarten/first grade class at the Idaho campus of Teton Science Schools’ Mountain Academy was thrilled to see your cover story about wildlife crossings (“Crossing to Safety,” 1/1/20). Throughout the fall and early winter, our class has been studying our local Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the animals that live here. Our focus turned towards animal […]