Letter to the editor

Thank you to Debbie Weingarten and Tony Davis for their really excellent article, “Sucked Dry” (August 2021), about Riverview LLP’s mega-dairy expansion into southeast Arizona. It’s one of the best pieces of investigative journalism I have read in High Country News in some time. The article provides a clear example of several key issues the […]

Tony Davis and Debbie Weingarten’s article, “Sucked Dry,” is superb reporting. I can’t thank you enough for such a comprehensive look at this issue, heartbreaking as it is. Stevan BosanacPetaluma, California This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Superb reporting.

Great pair of articles about the Skagit River; fascinating and something I’m deeply interested in across the West, but especially as a Seattle resident (August 2021). I think Washington has an interesting opportunity to lead the way and become a model for Western dam removal.  One thing I was left curious about was the cascading […]

I thought “Uncertain water supply” (June 2021) was a deeply engaging and illuminating piece of regional journalism. It is clear that a lot of effort was invested in the research and reporting of the article’s subject, and it is very much reflected in the writing. It is a great example of the kind of investigative […]

I lived in prime Sonoran Desert Toad habitat from 1989-2019 and read “A hallucinogenic toad in peril” (July 2021) with interest, especially since I know people who occasionally harvested the toad’s hallucinogenic secretions. The habitat I refer to is a facility built on abandoned cotton fields in Pinal County, Arizona. Nightly watering of the grass […]

Thank you for your editor’s note “Keeping up with the changing West” (June 2021). As the editor of a regional weekly focused on agriculture, farming life and related politics in Southern and Western Norway, your words confirm to me what also our magazine Bondevennen (“Farmer’s Friend”) really is and should be all about: celebrating our […]

Wufei Yu’s excellent reporting “A reality check on Biden’s ‘30 by 30’ conservation plan” (hcn.org, June 23, 2021) springs open the conversation for the nation to digest and design a better 30×30. I am inspired to study the report. Elaine JeffersonNew York, New York This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with […]

Thanks to Maya Kapoor for her excellent series on lithium mines (“When Indigenous religious freedom and public-lands management clash,” July 2021, and “The next mining boom?” March 2021). Cultural and environmental damage worldwide weigh heavily on us already. I, for one, can’t wait for a better alternative fuel. Valerie McBrideBoulder, Colorado This article appeared in […]

The claim that Colorado and other Western states are being loved to death is wildly overstated, except for the most-Instagrammed spots (“Public lands inundated,” June 2021). I backpacked 732 miles diagonally across Colorado from the southeast to northwest corners in the summer of 2020 and encountered no more than three hikers a day in every […]

I’m guessing I’m a bit more urban and left-leaning than Neil Snyder (Letters, June 2021, “Changes”), but I largely agree with him about HCN. Yet I’m sticking with you for now, renewing for just one year based on Jennifer Sahn’s first issue as editor-in-chief.  She may not be a physicist, like HCN’s best in my […]

In the article “The Fire Next Time” (June 2021), I wish to point out that despite numerous large wildfires, global warming and the ongoing destruction of global rainforests, the Forest Service continues to promote the cutting down of live trees. These trees are harvested for the large egos that run the bureaucracy, so that they […]

I’ve been an on-and-off subscriber and occasional contributor to High Country News for so many years I’ve lost track — roughly 25. I just received the June issue, along with a sticker saying it is my last one and that I need to renew. I opened it to read your inaugural Editor’s Note (by Editor-in-Chief […]

Your efforts bring me such a tingly kind of joy. Every issue is out of the park! You are the mythical exceptional American. Thanks. Jon HermanRoslyn, Washington This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Exceptional.

When I first subscribed to your magazine, I was ready to put on my boots to explore Colorado and adjacent states and write to Washington, D.C., regarding matters pertaining to wilderness. As time has gone by, your magazine has gone so far afield from your original purpose that I no longer agree with your mission. […]

I’ve been reading High Country News since I fought fires in Wyoming in 1977. HCN looks better than ever, with great photos of the Atascosa and its plant life — as well as the LA River (both May 2021), and your articles are as smart as ever and more wide-ranging (i.e., culturally diverse). Keep it […]

It is with a bit of remorse that I have to tell you that I will not be renewing my subscription this fall, thus ending my continuous subscription of 38 years. While I understand some of the journalism changes you have made, I find myself reading fewer articles in High Country News. I regret the […]

It was with great interest that I read the June issue of HCN, especially the article about the Salmon-Challis National Forest (“The Fire Next Time”). We lived there for eight and a half years (’77 to ’85), when I worked as a range specialist for the Bureau of Land Management for four-plus years and then […]

Thank you for another excellent issue, and especially Claire Thompson’s book review (“The wisdom of trees,” June 2021). As a retired national park ranger-naturalist, with two forestry degrees, I’m painfully aware of the split within the forestry community. Trees are finally getting some recognition, and not just as homes for the cute fuzzy aboveground beasts […]

Thanks for Sarah Tory’s story on Phoenix’s water-depletion myopia, “Uncertain water supply” (June 2021). Tory did a great job of summarizing the history comprehensively, yet comprehensibly. That’s talent. I live in Phoenix and fear for the future. Phoenix is built out, but the main industry, just beyond Phoenix’s borders, remains housing development, even though the […]

I read with great interest the June 2021 article, “The Fire Next Time” by Carl Segerstrom. Similar events have occurred on the national forests and grasslands in Texas. The Forest Service everywhere is trying to avoid doing required environmental analysis. This is wrong, illegal, and the agency knows this. Megafires are not stopped by thinning, prescribed […]