Letter to the editor

At first, the article was interesting to me, but after reading the whole thing it seems a bit slanted. I’m an avid shooter and hunter, and it seems to paint me as a “nut.” I’m a sane guy out here in the West who enjoys hunting and shooting with my kids to put food on […]

In his Aug. 6 Editor’s Note, John (Mecklin) describes Ray Ring’s firearms package as “remarkably even-handed and hope it can provide a starting point … for discussion. …” Right. I didn’t realize HCN was becoming a humor periodical. An “even-handed” presentation should characterize Second Amendment supporters as other than quirky Western kooks and addled wingnuts […]

Your cover story asks the question, “Is it time to re-examine the West’s extraordinary fascination with firearms?” Uhmmmm … Extraordinary? The West is rather large and many of us live a long way from the nearest sheriff. Our stupid government has put just enough pressure on the drug suppliers to raise the price of drugs […]

The concerns about solar panel arrays being ugly is a bit ironic, as viewed from the developmental sprawl and congestion in and around our cities (HCN, 7/23/07). However, are there any examples of “community solar,” whereby neighbors have combined efforts to locate a group of panels on a compatible site? Dan Rathmann Cincinnati, Ohio This […]

I was “appalled” to read Will Nobauer’s letter regarding your article on Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife (HCN, 7/23/07). In the letter he calls these people “stupid looking white-trash rednecks” and “psychotic mental retards.” Such a wonderful example of intelligent discourse. It came as no surprise to me to find out that good old Will […]

Things are slanty all over. It’s no secret that my fellow granola leftys don’t like Hummer-driving meatheads (and John Mecklin really doesn’t) (HCN, 7/23/07). While it’s true that hydrogen is a sham, Schwarzenegger deserves a little more credit than HCN seems willing to give. Your article somehow omitted that the MTV episode that he appeared […]

Some folks just don’t want to see past the stereotypes. Regarding “The Aroma Of Tacoma” by Karen Mockler, how would Ms. Mockler like it if I advertised via a syndicated column in over 40 newspapers across the West that her town of choice, Billings, Mont., suffered perpetual Missoula insecurity syndrome and was populated by nothing […]

Isabelle Groc’s article, “When the Joneses go solar,” would have been more properly titled “When the Joneses build an 8,000-square-foot monument to excess consumption on five acres, they go solar to make the neighbors think they give a hoot about the environment” (HCN, 7/23/07). Couldn’t Ms. Groc have found a home that reflected consideration for […]

Thank you for the timely and informative article on the role of native bees in pollination (HCN, 6/11/07). It is important for farmers, gardeners and the general public to learn about how the 4,000 species of bees native to North America play a crucial part in the pollination of food crops. It was interesting to […]

I received my first copy of High Country News a few days ago and it is every bit as good as you said it would be, only better. I must declare that I was not too happy with the cover, however (HCN, 6/25/07). Too bad I did not meet your lion hunter in ‘Nam. I […]

Residents of Great Falls, be GREAT! For a small city with so much going for it, you apparently don’t know yet what you want to be when you grow up (HCN, 6/25/07). You deserve more than becoming the armpit of the beautiful state of Montana under the guise of economic development. In fact, economic development […]

I had to cool off for a couple of days after reading Irle White’s sanctimonious diatribe praising his father’s attitude toward fly-fishing and condemning anybody who fishes for sport or with new and improved equipment (HCN, 6/11/07). How and when did he get the rights to dictate the moral ethics for fly-fishing? I’m 76 years […]

As an emeritus professor of metallurgy, I was disturbed to see the promotion of bamboo bike frames relative to steel frames in the “Snapshot” section of the June 11 issue (HCN, 6/11/07). Steel is referred to as “carbon-intensive” in that note, but steel is not carbon-intensive. Steel is mostly iron, an abundant element, that contains […]

In regards to your recent “Uncommon Westerners” article, I find little uncommon about Mike Noel, Utah state representative, other than that his favorite food is sushi (HCN, 5/28/07). Mike exemplifies many Westerners that are gung ho on keeping all public lands open to off-road vehicles, mining, logging and ranching. He also shows that a lot […]

How can you devote nine grisly pages to a rant on killing animals, by a guy who discredits himself – and all reportorial objectivity – by telling us he’d love to machine-gun coyotes? Shame on you. Your cover is sickening: a fool who kills a big beautiful lion so he can mount its head in […]

This is in response to Hal Herring’s well-written and informative article. Your cover was devastating. That something so beautiful can no longer roam free but ends up in the arms of one small human with blood on his hands and a smirk on his face – I simply fail to understand what would give one […]

So Hal Herring agrees with the dimwit teen who thinks it would be fun to machine-gun coyotes… also a great description of a snot-nosed kid jumping back and forth over a line of frozen, bloody coyote carcasses. And you wonder why some people think hunters are bloodthirsty freaks? I certainly am not opposed to responsible […]

Habitat, habitat, habitat; repeat over and over, and if the hunting and fishing gods are with us, it will become the mantra of every hunting and angling group in America. Every group, from Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife to the Vegetarians for Huntable Wildlife (OK, I made that one up), knows in its heart of […]

In regards to your article about the organization Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, I would just like to let people know that most “hunter conservation” groups out there, unlike SFW, do not support unlimited predator killing and the elimination of large carnivores like wolves and grizzlies. For instance, the group Backcountry Hunters and Anglers (www.backcountryhunters.org) […]

Hal Herring exalts Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife (SFW) and contends that sportsmen alone should be given the credit for wildlife protection because they paid for wildlife management “through the decades into a variety of revenue streams.” That logic is flawed for two reasons. Herring glides over the fact that during the last century many […]