HCN is a fine example of the modern writers’ ability to create mental images and to take the reader to places we have not been both in time and space. Jeremy Smith’s essay “A guide to the past — and the future” is a perfect example of prose that almost reaches to the level of […]
Letter to the editor
Posted inNovember 9, 2009: Roadless-less
Public lands, public gain
I agree with Ray Ring that Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns are on to something with the idea that public lands and “resources” ought to be reserved for the public and not allowed to be a source of enrichment for private individuals (HCN, 9/14 & 9/28/09). This theme recurs throughout the “Best Idea” episodes, along […]
Posted inNovember 9, 2009: Roadless-less
Put a (GMO) tiger in your tank
I read with great interest the story in the Oct. 12 edition of HCN about Monsanto’s genetically engineered beets and other crops. I think that it is time to put the kibosh on Monsanto’s chemical activities when it comes to our food products. We need to get the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare genetically […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
When cows are outlawed …
In a letter to the editor, rancher John Marble writes, “I doubt many items in the organic produce aisle are grown with as little environmental impact as our beef” (HCN, 9/14 & 9/28/09). A while back, I discovered a remarkable statistic: Making a pound of beef creates 36 times the greenhouse gas emissions that creating […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
Fish stories
Regarding your story “The Most Cooked-up Catch,” I was there when the 200-mile limit was, in fact, first imposed (HCN, 8/03/09). (Editor’s note: Congress enacted the 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zone in 1976.) I was a freshly minted Coast Guard airman sent to Kodiak, Alaska, in 1967 to commence fisheries enforcement for the new 200-mile limit. […]
Posted inOctober 26, 2009: The newest Westerners
Green delusions
Audubon’s equivocations in Arizona are just the tip of the iceberg (HCN, 10/12/09). In the last decade, mainstream environmental groups have been co-opted, again and again, by wealthy entrepreneurial “benefactors.” Often these benefactors leverage their massive donations into a seat on the group’s board of directors, where policy is set. Even as human-caused climate change […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
“A blip on the radar screen”
I find the Uncommon Westerners column frustrating at times because it seems like filler with no real rhyme or reason. For instance, the latest personality, Guiseppena Bellandi, certainly had a story as to how she came west, but her life seems like a blip on the radar screen, with no real impact on how she […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Merit, more broadly defined
Ray Ring’s article “Is Obama’s goal of diversity trumping other goals?” suggests that the administration’s decision to hire minorities for key governmental positions compromises environmental goals in favor of ethnic diversity (HCN, 8/17/09). While there are undoubtedly some traditional “heavy hitter” white men who would merit these positions, merit in this context should be understood […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
That shrinking feeling
As a mountaineering instructor for the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), I have spent a significant amount of time living and traveling on North Cascades glaciers over the past five years. I just returned from a 10-day mountaineering course on Mount Baker to see Ana Maria Spagna’s essay, “Living on Glacial Time,” and the article […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Crowded attic in New York too
If Andrew Sean Greer had ridden the Staten Island Ferry more often — or ever — he’d know that New York City’s sky can be as complex as any in the West (HCN, 9/14/09): limpid blue, thick with rainclouds, striped with vivid sunset cirrus … an approaching squall to starboard, shafts of sunlight jeweling the […]
Posted inOctober 12, 2009: Silenced Springs?
Finding the middle ground
Comment on Writers on the Range column at hcn.org, “Conservationists wrong to oppose wolf hunt” by Mike Medberry Mike Medberry’s column on reasonable wolf management is a breath of fresh air. I too think there is a lot of middle ground for responsible management. But the states sure haven’t shown that intention, and I suppose […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
A win for the gipper?
Though there has been widespread praise in some quarters, I find it difficult to muster much enthusiasm for Sen. Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act described in “Taking Control of the Machine” (HCN, 7/20/09). Perhaps a historical anecdote will help explain. In 1988, both houses of Congress passed a Montana wilderness bill that protected 1.4 […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
Beef: It (should be) what’s for dinner
The reference in Andrea Appleton’s review of Righteous Porkchop: Finding a Life and Good Food Beyond Factory Farms (HCN, 8/03/09) to the “soil erosion and desertification intensive grazing can cause” is technically and ecologically incorrect. Modern, progressive ranchers follow a management scheme called intensive grazing that results in increasing the organic content of the soil, […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
Lawsuits of last resort
“Thinking Outside the Timber Box” discussed the Center for Biological Diversity’s efforts to restore northern Arizona’s once-stately ponderosa pine forests (HCN, 7/20/09). Our memo of understanding with Arizona Forest Restoration Products does not waive the Center’s right to appeal or litigate Forest Service decisions. It instead promotes high-quality ecological restoration projects to preclude the need […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
Pass on gas
I find it unfortunate that Randy Udall has suggested that natural gas, a fossil fuel, can save the world (HCN, 8/17/09). The implication is that the relatively recent discoveries about how to better exploit shale gas will be sufficient to meet a substantial part of our energy needs. The article gives citizens a false sense […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
The lodgepole hegemony
Hillary Rosner’s article puts undue emphasis on the negative aspects of the pine-bark beetle infestation affecting forests around the West (HCN, 8/17/2009). While it is a difficult adjustment for many of the area’s residents and the cause of a few tragic deaths, this event has many positive aspects as well. In my view, it is […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 2009: Home
The unbearable lightness of baby feet
Michelle Nijhuis’s essay “A Tenderfoot in Taos,” about the mom, the baby and the concerned drunk in the park, made that issue more human (HCN, 7/20/09). Thomas Merton wrote: “I think the chief reason we have so little joy is that we take ourselves too seriously.” People who are really concerned about what happens to […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
Collaborative misinformation
Gary Nabhan’s hit piece on Jon Jarvis, Obama’s nominee for Director of the National Park Service, is misinformed, replete with false assertions and does a disservice to dedicated, longtime agency employees (HCN, 8/3/09). Nabhan’s assertion that Jarvis and Point Reyes National Seashore Superintendent Don Neubacher are trying to “phase out” and “evict” oyster farming and […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
Reid’s water grab
It is good to see Harry Reid’s cover being blown by Ray Ring (HCN, 8/3/09). For people in rural Nevada, Reid’s two-faced BS is common knowledge. Here in Lyon County, Nevada’s largest ag-producing county, Sen. Reid is the power behind the $200 million added to the Farm Bill to purchase the water rights of local […]
Posted inAugust 31, 2009: The dark side of dairies
Righteous steak, too
Your review of my book Righteous Porkchop had a serious flaw (HCN, 8/3/09). The reviewer suggested that I intentionally avoid criticizing cattle ranching because of my own involvement in it. This fundamentally misses the argument the book is making about modern industrialized food production, namely that today’s confinement poultry, hog, and dairy operations, which keep […]