Letter to the editor

I found “life after the lawn” several years ago. I have lived in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert all my life, but I let myself be led astray. When I was younger, I let Easterners and other assorted city slickers influence me to plant a Bermuda grass lawn and even a winter rye grass lawn. Both are […]

Ranchers have it tough, a huge understatement, but Sharon Salisbury O’Toole’s complaint in her Aug. 7 essay, “There was no green in this Rainbow gathering,” sounds like a selfish indulgence. I was surprised that it was published by HCN. Ranchers enjoy the use of public lands most of the year and make a profit while […]

It appears that just about any place can qualify as wilderness these days if the political will is there to make it so. This certainly is the case for the Jerry Peak area in Idaho. The truly beautiful picture accompanying the Aug. 21 article, “Wilderness cliffhanger,” shows the area as emerald green. Most of the […]

I am an Oregon planner. Yes, I repeat: I am an Oregon planner. Despite what you hear about Measure 37, we’re still here. The sky fell and we’re still around picking up the pieces. Life’s never been better. Years ago, some of us said it was time to go out to the public, statewide, and […]

Regarding your Aug. 8 article, “Clearing a path for power,” as a veteran of a successful 11-year battle to stop a 345 KV power line from being built across the Valles Caldera National Preserve in northern New Mexico, I know how complicated and time-consuming stopping these power lines can be. Sadly, most large new power […]

I’m writing in response to your “Dear Friends” column of June 12. I found your focus on diversity at a recent Saturday morning gathering of staffers and board members to be troubling. I cannot fathom the weak, irrational deduction that goes, “because the (fill in the blank) is diverse, our staff or our movement or […]

Caddyshack and Happy Gilmore have popularized a misperception of golf as a game played by rich white guys who wear funny clothes, bet large amounts of money, drink too much, and regularly invent new terms of profanity. There certainly are golfers whose sense of ecosystem management is having sufficient Cuban cigars to play 18 holes. […]

I enjoyed Paolo Bacigalupi’s story, “The Tamarisk Hunter.” (HCN, 6/26/06: The Tamarisk Hunter) It was a good piece of science fiction and intriguing thinking as well. But I need to make a correction to Greg Hanscom’s thinking in his editorial. The Upper Basin states are NOT obligated to deliver an average of 7.5 million acre-feet of […]

Not all libertarians are affiliated with the Libertarian Party and get just 1 to 2 percent of the vote in elections (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). The majority of libertarians these days are active in the GOP and actually win elections, like Congressmen Ron Paul of Texas, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Butch Otter of Idaho, and Dana […]

Yee-haw! It’s great to see High Country News riding full bore to expose the awful “takings” initiatives under way in six Western states (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). HCN is right on when it asserts that people were snookered into voting for this awful legislation in Oregon, where I lived at the time. Even my conservationist and […]

As an Oregon voter, I strongly support Measure 37 (HCN, 7/24/06). Do I think it solves everything about land use? Of course not. Will it need revision in the future? Certainly. So why do I support it? Because it forces government at all levels to pause and think about what they are doing. In some areas […]

I stumbled across your newspaper at my girlfriend’s house (the landlords subscribe to it) and while waiting for my microwave meal to heat, I started reading this article (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). By the time I was done, my food was cold and I was ranting and raving to my girlfriend about this Howie Rich devil […]

Ray Ring writes: “Governments use eminent domain occasionally, to condemn property and force the owners to accept a buyout, to make new roads, urban renewal and other projects that benefit the public” (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). OK, but who decides if the projects will benefit the public? In New Mexico, Bernalillo County has rezoned so that […]

The “Taking Liberties” article is pure propaganda (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). These sinister Libertarians who can never seem to get a percent or two of the vote have somehow hypnotized Oregon voters (hardly a bastion of conservatism) and pulled the wool out from under everyone? Huh? All of these measures are going to pass and pass […]

One response to the takings movement might be to pass legislation allowing neighbors to sue developers for reductions in their own property values, or recreationists to sue them for lost value of amenities. Posted by nordell This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Fight fire with fire.

The “Taking Liberties” article is completely overblown (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). I have filed and won a Measure 37 claim, so I have some experience with this. The sky is not falling, folks. Life in Oregon goes on as before, for 99 percent of the people. No, everyone is not finding a trailer park or gravel […]

Ray Ring’s “Taking Liberties” shows how easily the initiative process can lead to unintended and unpleasant consequences (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). Most people rarely take the time to fully inform themselves on the issues they’re voting on. It reminds me of something the journalist H.L. Mencken said almost a hundred years ago: “Democracy is the theory […]

Dorothy English said it as plain as possible: “I want my land to be mine, to do with whatever I want” (HCN, 7/24/06: Taking Liberties). Community concerns enter in not. I live in isolation on this planet and I don’t want to be obstructed by war, famine, pestilence, nearby neighbors, or global warming. It is my […]

I’d like to respond to Kevin Walker’s recent letter (HCN, 7/24/06: SUWA’s on the right track). He rejects my comments that enviro groups like SUWA have ignored impacts from non-motorized recreation and the “amenities economy.” He also calls “completely false” my assertion that SUWA altered a proposed wilderness boundary to avoid conflicts with the “24 Hours […]

Just finished reading “The Tamarisk Hunter” (HCN, 6/26/06:The Tamarisk Hunter). Wow! What a great piece of fiction (maybe)! The excellent illustrations set the stage. This was a nice twist in a great paper. Ken Decker Santee, California This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline A Calie cheers for ‘Tamarisk […]