Letter to the editor

Thank you for the invitation to “toss in my two cents.” I literally grew up with your newspaper in my home. My late father, Louis A. “Sam” Bibler, subscribed to HCN beginning in the 1970s, and was one of your most enthusiastic readers. I lament the changes in your paper since that time, and especially […]

No excuse that the “staff feels that the doings in D.C. are the most critical right now” to justify a lack of objectivity and balance. Maybe you and the staff need a refresher course in Journalism 101. Either you’re journalists or advocates, and should declare where you stand politically. Jim Nielson Cody, Wyoming This article […]

Congratulations to you, the staff, and the HCN board for your in-depth reporting on environmental and natural resource issues in the West. Ideally, we would also prefer emphasis on collaborative efforts to manage land, water, and wildlife. Unfortunately, at the behest of its right-wing constituents, the Bush administration is dismembering environmental protection and cloaking these […]

As the president of the Rio Grande Water Conservation District, I have many responsibilities to attempt to prevent the types of water wars that ultimately tear communities apart. The fact is that in a small community like our San Luis Valley, nothing is possible if we are unable to present a united front in the […]

HCN is on the right track. Collaboration works with people who understand the concept. The Bush administration does not collaborate, but stubbornly follows its own agenda to its sole benefit. The mainstream papers have fallen down on the job and don’t call Bush on it. Now is the time to expose the policies of the […]

As a newspaper publisher in the Western U.S. for 20 years, I make it a point not to cancel subscriptions out of anger. But, while I may yet be enlightened to a different perspective, I’ve found HCN, to which I subscribed in February, to be much more about ideology than news. Because it was too […]

As a native of northwestern Colorado, I am a fan of High Country News. It has evolved from a tiny paper for people who care about the environment to a significant regional publication that contains news and opinions not found in nationally syndicated columns or major urban newspapers. I read it because I am a […]

I was drawn to HCN a year or so ago, when I read somewhere that HCN was the paper for people who care about the West. My first exposure to the sacrificing of the West for the good of the nation was the Trinity atomic bomb explosion — I was in the fourth grade in […]

Please don’t label me as one of “our more conservative readers,” but I agree that the paper seems to be exhibiting more of that old-fashioned enviro bias and heading in a more polarizing direction than the HCN of old. By “polarizing” I mean spinning stories in terms of those archaic categories of conservative vs. liberal, […]

I’d agree with recent criticisms that your paper has taken a turn toward political bandwagoning. It mirrors most of the endless stream of imploring letters from the Sierra Club/Wilderness Society/Audubon Society/Nature Conservancy/Public Land Trust/Trust to Save the Grand Canyon or Silvery Minnow or Spotted Perch, etc., that find their way to my door every week. […]

In a recent letter, Neil Snyder wrote that “today’s party is not your daddy’s Democratic party, and you’ll have a hard time attracting conservatives to support it” (HCN, 5/24/04: This isn’t your daddy’s Democratic party). His arguments were disingenuous on at least two counts. He alluded to the fact that two Democrats got us involved […]

The May 10th edition contained yet another article praising an effort to protect wilderness. HCN presents these efforts as being promoted by grassroots groups, and as a result, of this reporting, the typical HCN reader is likely to conclude that there is a true grassroots movement for wilderness in the West. Unfortunately, this is not […]

I have worked for a rural California land trust for five years, and wanted to respond to Mr. Gerber’s comments in his letter to the editor, “Caveats on easements” (HCN, 4/26/04: Caveats on easements). I wholeheartedly agree with his suggestion that landowners think long and hard before placing conservation easements on their property. Conservation easements […]

Jon Christensen’s article, “Who Will Take Over the Ranch?” is very timely, and covered a lot of ground (HCN, 3/29/04: Who Will Take Over the Ranch?). I own a small ranch in a sensitive area in northeast Washington, and have spent the last three years discussing conservation easements with a land trust located in another […]

In response to Dave Skinner’s essay, I must confess to being what he calls a “greenie” (HCN, 5/10/04: Motorized recreation belongs in the backcountry). But I implore you, Dave, don’t give up all that quickly. You might have allies you have not counted on. First, however, allow me to establish that in western Nevada where […]

So, Dave! What happens when the real world doesn’t fit in to your neat, simple categories (HCN, 5/10/04: Motorized recreation belongs in the backcountry)? Say, for example, when an avid hiker (and former NRA member) also avidly defends her family’s right to have fun on their ORVs — or advocates responsible, sustainable logging, grazing and […]

Lydia Millet describes landscape photographs as seen in calendars and posters as pornography because “they offer comfort to the viewer” and “serve as surrogates for real engagement with wilderness” (HCN, 4/12/04: Die, baby harp seal!). Many of the individuals I know who have experience traveling in wilderness realize that landscape photographs can be both simulations […]

Thank heaven for Lydia Millet (HCN, 4/12/04: Die, baby harp seal!). Her challenge to us all — especially to proponents of sentimental, cutesy environmental promotion — is to find “the guts to assault us with the ugly impacts of our own appetites,” rather than the romanticism of the animal and scenic porn of environmental calendars […]

I recently read Jon Christensen’s piece about the loss of ranch land in the West to development (HCN, 3/29/04: Who will take over the ranch?). Obviously, the public, primarily through its federal government, which has the most money to spend, has an interest in preserving these lands. This piece made me think about the Iraq […]

Jon Christensen does a great job in portraying one of the biggest issues facing the conservation community in the West: the constantly increasing pressure to develop and subdivide (HCN, 3/29/04: Who will take over the ranch?). However, he fails to address an important question raised about land trusts: What will be the character of the […]