Letter to the editor

“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 […]

“How Big Rec picks its battles” (11/25/19) distorts Patagonia’s long-standing advocacy to protect public land. The reporter is right to care about border communities impacted by this administration’s grotesque policies and the lack of diversity in the outdoor industry; both are deeply concerning, and Patagonia is addressing them through direct action. But the implication that […]

Is this part of HCN’s new slick magazine approach (“Worse for Wear,” 1/1/20)? To keep reposting simplistic analyses of headgear? I kept thinking of the often-printed image of HCN’s founder, Tom Bell, and what he would have thought of your cowboy hat editorial. I understand what the editorial was trying to accomplish, but is this […]

In “Is Renewable Energy’s Future Dammed?” (11/25/19) Nick Bowlin asks an important question, but fails to mention some critical facts that we need to weigh when thinking about future hydropower projects. According to the National Inventory of Dams, maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers, there are 91,468 dams in the United States — the […]

The folks who have been in Wyoming for generations would probably prefer that the decisions about Wyoming’s future were left to them, rather than all the “wonderful schemes” those moving from other places have in mind. (“Coal state struggles,” 12/9/19). What they should do is charge an entrance fee for all the newcomers and tourists. […]

This profile of Markwayne Mullin (“A Cherokee for Trump,” 12/9/19) by Graham Lee Brewer is an incredible piece, and yet another example from High Country News as to why it’s crucial for Native reporters and editors to be hired to cover their own communities. —Nick Martin This article appeared in the print edition of the […]

It couldn’t be that the Transcontinental Railroad opened up thousands of square miles of land, connecting it back to civilization (“Gilded Age problems,” 12/9/19). It couldn’t be that it was an engineering marvel of its time. Nor could it have been an economic boom at the time. Nope, HCN just takes history and spins it […]

Jonathan Thompson aptly calls out Bureau of Land Management Acting Director William Perry Pendley’s big lie about the “existential threat” to public lands (“BLM chief ’s wild horse fixation,” 11/25/19).  Sadly, Thompson goes on to refer to the estimated 88,000 wild horses on public lands, stating that their “hooves trample and lay waste to big swaths of […]

It never ends well when a whole local economy is based on nonrenewable natural resource (“Coal state struggles,” 12/9/19). Communities all over the world want the jobs that mining brings, but then their children or grandchildren end up living through the burst of the bubble. —Taal Levi This article appeared in the print edition of […]

Whether coal has been “good to Wyoming” or not is pretty debatable (“Coal state struggles,” 12/9/19). Much of the cleanup costs will fall on the state’s taxpayers, and Wyoming doesn’t have much of a tax base as it is, much less after a large part of its income (and its workers) leaves. Wyoming needs to […]

“Killing the Goat” was a great article and reminds me of my decision to never hunt again. Halas’ lost goat was my lost elk years before in Colorado. Never again! Ron Mannhalter, via Twitter This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A reason not to hunt.

I have been reading HCN since 2001, during my early college days at Western State in Gunnison. I have never been as unimpressed by an essay as I was by Gabriela Halas’ “Killing the Goat” (HCN, 10/28/19). The writer’s “true kinship” with the two animals she killed retards the idea of hunting ethics and spirituality […]

As far as I know, no one is currently sure of the history of chronic wasting disease (“Weighing the risks”). One theory is that it has been around for many millennia, but was controlled by predators like wolves, mountain lions and bears eating the ungulates that were less able to escape them. So predators removed […]

Emily Benson diplomatically raises some of the issues surrounding hunting in a modern society (“The power of hunting,” HCN, 10/28/19). There are three additional items worth pointing out. First: Show me the cost-benefit analysis for hunting. It might prove out for subsistence hunters or rural folks shooting game in their hayfields, but for most urbanites, […]