Letter to the editor

I thought that Alaska was crazy over wolves, and yes, they still are, but in Catron County, where I now spend my winters, things are crazier yet (HCN, 2/04/08). I’m not sure how the threatened child issue became so prominent in Catron County. Of course, wolves could kill a child, or an adult, for that […]

“Havana goes West” by Nathaniel Hoffman felt like something out of a socialist trade journal (HCN, 3/03/08). In Cuba today, no more than three people are allowed to meet on the street or they can be locked up by the police. Nobody changes jobs and nobody changes where they live. Opposition writers and journalists are […]

The prospect of “high wage” mining and energy jobs is one reason Western communities might welcome extractive industries (HCN, 2/18/08). Indeed, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data confirm that mining and construction pay well, averaging $20 per hour, while workers in the “Leisure and Hospitality” industry make just $10 per hour. So does the […]

I feel the issues in “Unnatural Preservation” were presented in a very dichotomous way, that is, scientists versus managers, now versus never, all versus nothing (HCN, 2/04/08). Yet there are plenty of examples where we are addressing the gray area by trying different things at different scales, creating multidisciplinary collaborations, and envisioning alternative future landscapes. […]

The “Unnatural Preservation” article, like nearly everything else in HCN, is generally excellent (HCN, 2/04/08). However, the authors miss, I think, an important element of the National Park Service management philosophy, and thus distort their conclusions about the agency. While the Park Service still holds onto the general thrust of the policy toward its natural […]

About five times a year we fly a small private plane from Arizona to California and back, and our route often takes us just to the north of the Salton Sea (HCN, 3/03/08). We’ve often wondered what it’s like on the ground. Now we know, and we don’t need to land to see it for […]

I was touched by Ana Maria Spagna’s essay, “Staying Put” (HCN, 3/03/08). As parents to two elderly-but-still-healthy, but nonetheless dependent and emotionally needy cats, we stay home quite a bit. And I’ve been hoping for a long time to hear someone in authority, or aspiring to authority, suggest to the American people that we might […]

I was pleased to read your article “Reluctant Boomtown,” which focused on the multitude of problems connected with the possible return of copper mining to the town of Superior, Ariz. (HCN, 2/18/08). It seems that in Superior some residents favor the mine and some oppose it. You briefly mention another proposal, on the oak and […]

What a pleasant surprise to read James Yearling’s informative piece about geothermal energy (HCN, 2/18/08). As a volcanologist who spent much of his 32-year career researching geothermal resources for the U.S. Geological Survey, I’m used to seeing geothermal treated like the comedian Rodney Dangerfield … getting no respect. This lack of respect is in spite […]

Richard Halsey, discussed in Judith Lewis’ story “The Chaparralian,” should not assume that because lightning-caused fires in coastal California are rare, all fire there is historically rare (HCN, 2/04/08). In his book Forgotten Fires: Native Americans and the Transient Wilderness, anthropologist Omer C. Stewart argues persuasively, using documentation and physical evidence, that for thousands of […]

The article about Superior, Ariz., was well-researched and beautifully written (HCN, 2/18/08). My husband has many family connections with that area, so we have visited over the years and wondered how things would turn out for those old mining towns. It always seemed to me that Superior had a great future as a place for […]

High Country News has brought to the fore a critical environmental quandary: Should we protect species by any means necessary in the face of climate change or let nature take its course (HCN, 2/04/08)? There is another element of our response to climate change that deserves greater emphasis: management of working landscapes. A “let nature […]

While it is gratifying to see some coverage of the potential problems our current wildlife preservation systems face in the presence of climate change, there are some continuing blind spots that should be pointed out (HCN, 2/04/08). First, as was noted in a 2002 HCN interview with conservation biologist Michael Soule, the “pristine ecosystem” that […]

What a depressing letters page (HCN, 2/04/08)! Mr. Gardner speaks of an unsustainable population, Bagley takes a cheap shot at large families, and Williams is just plain mad at “enormous families.” These sentiments are intolerant and hateful. They remind me of Einstein’s words: “The most important decision you have to make is whether you live […]

While Randy Udall has some valid issues, in that it’s reasonable for the state to benefit from mining its natural resources, especially to pay for infrastructure, his logic breaks down when he tries to make the connection that oil companies’ high profits are due to gas production in Colorado (HCN, 2/04/08). Most of the companies […]

BIOFUEL WON’T DO IT Sugar cane’s efficiency in producing ethanol is 800 percent compared with 130 percent for corn, as others have mentioned (HCN, 2/4/08). Currently, our sugar cane lands in Hawaii are fallow or growing eucalyptus trees. But even if we replanted cane to all these lands and also to suitable lands in our […]

I thought Ray Ring’s article on a potential national energy policy was excellent (HCN, 1/21/08). It was the sort of piece that made me glad I recently renewed my subscription. Now if only a presidential candidate would take it from here. Robert Fisher Corona, Arizona This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine […]

Instead of giving us a hypothetical letter, why not call the presidential candidates and ask them where they stand on Western issues, and then tell us (HCN, 1/21/08)? You could have played an important role in informing us about where the candidates stand on the issues. I believe the most important challenge in the West […]

It seemed as though Todd Wilkinson’s column, “Where do you draw the line?” was really asking, “Where should I draw the line?” (HCN, 1/21/08). I was unable to connect the dots between his reflections upon his own “lame and futile” political agitations of the past to beg the title question for the rest of us. […]

The degree of one’s patriotism can be measured by what is risked by the individual. Todd Wilkinson’s recent essay said, “Yet how is standing up to battle against landscape destruction any less a patriotic calling than what is being asked of our soldiers in Iraq?” (HCN, 1/21/08) Conservationists rarely risk their lives or even their […]