Letter to the editor

In “Riding the middle path,” (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the middle path) High Country News explores the efforts of Owyhee County citizens to achieve consensus on how to manage thousands of acres of public lands. The article rightly points out that this effort is an arduous one, as folks with widely varying interests, dreams, and backgrounds […]

The HCN article on the Owyhee Initiative was superficial, misleading and omitted several key points (HCN, 12/8/03: Riding the middle path). None of the ostensibly green groups at the table is fighting for what is best for this ecosystem: real wilderness on a big enough scale for native wildlife to flourish. The Idaho Conservation League, […]

The article on the San Diego Multiple Species Conservation Program (MSCP) paints an overly negative picture of the effort (HCN, 11/10/03: San Diego’s Habitat Triage). The MSCP took a fragmented ecosystem within a major metropolitan area — otherwise on the road to oblivion — and created an interconnected reserve system. Indeed, the most developable large […]

Laura Paskus’ one-sided article, “New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut,” has largely parroted the viewpoint of the local anti-LANL (Los Alamos National Laboratory) organizations (HCN, 11/24/03: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut). I am a LANL employee, although the opinions expressed here are my own. The problems with this article begin […]

I write in response to your cover story on Los Alamos National Laboratory’s waste-cleanup practices (HCN, 11/24/03: New Mexico goes head-to-head with a nuclear juggernaut). I was most interested in how you would approach the subject, being a subscriber to HCN and a great fan for roughly a decade, a conservation activist in northern New […]

Bully! Bully! Bully! Andrew Gulliford’s essay about President Teddy Roosevelt should be read by every card-carrying Republican (HCN, 10/13/03: Where’s Teddy when you need him?). I am and always have been a Republican. I would challenge that, between Roosevelt and Richard Nixon, we Republicans have produced some of the most significant conservation and protection legislation […]

Andrew Gulliford opines that Theodore Roosevelt, if he came back today, would be flabbergasted by the Interior Department’s recent decision to jettison years of study on BLM wilderness areas (HCN, 10/13/03: Where’s Teddy when you need him?). I’m not so sure. Roosevelt certainly knew and respected John Muir, and supported his vision to preserve and […]

The deaths of Timothy Treadwell and Amie Huguenard, ostensibly by grizzly mauling, were the stuff of sensational headlines, especially on the heels of the mauling of tiger-trainer Roy Horn in Las Vegas. It was predictable that the mainstream, corporate media would have a field day. We expected better of High Country News. We were disappointed. […]

As a sixth-generation Montanan, and longtime subscriber to High Country News, I usually just read your great paper and keep quiet. But this time I had to pick up my writin’ stick. Lisa Jones’ attempt at regional satire (HCN, 10/27/03: My sensitive man meets culture shock on the range) left me wonderin’ where on earth […]

I had to comment on Lisa Jones’ article “My Sensitive Man meets culture shock on the range” (HCN, 10/27/03: My Sensitive Man meets culture shock on the range). My immediate reaction when I read the article was to laugh. After I thought about the article, however, I realized that Ms. Jones’ rantings were exactly the […]

When I read Lisa Jones’ essay, I wasn’t sure whether I was more offended by what she wrote about the West, where I now live, or Vermont, where I used to live. The West she ridicules as callow, uncultured, easily excited to a frenzy by images of its violent past; Vermont she insults with false […]

Congratulations on a fine piece by Ray Ring, “The Big Story Written Small” (HCN, 10/13/03: The Big Story Written Small). I was a reporter in Arizona in the early ’80s who wrote extensively on environmental and development issues, and frequently found I had the field pretty much to myself. Over the past two decades, alas, […]

Ray Ring’s excellent piece on the shortcomings of Western newspapers (HCN, 10/13/03: The Big Story Written Small) brought back a lot of memories from my own daily reporting days. His story, and the recent report from the Institutes for Journalism and Natural Resources, reveal a dirty little secret: Too many of our newspapers are skewering […]

“The Big Story Written Small,” about the shortcomings of daily newspapers in the West was well- written and informative (HCN, 10/13/03: The Big Story Written Small). However, I was taken aback to read that my own hometown newspaper, the Arizona Daily Sun, was one of nine newspapers to be awarded the first Wallace Stegner Award […]

Overall, I stand behind my story, “Harvesting Poison” (HCN, 9/29/03: Harvesting Poison). While the Washington Department of Agriculture has done some work to address the safety of illegal farm workers, these people remain a largely invisible, and neglected, workforce. Reading Mr. Zamora’s letter, one might think the two of us were in different rooms when […]

“Harvesting Poison,” (HCN, 9/29/03: Harvesting Poison) failed to mention or accurately report the efforts of the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) to protect farmworkers from pesticide exposure. WSDA places a high priority on farmworker protection. For more than a decade, WSDA’s Farmworker Education Program has provided Spanish-language pesticide safety training to agricultural workers and […]

I am compelled to respond to “Harvesting Poison” (HCN, 9/29/03: Harvesting Poison), as the article misrepresents what I said in my interview with the author. I did not say that every time I go out I see people spraying too close to unprotected workers. What I said was that every time I go out I […]

A friend brought us her copy of the Sept. 1, 2003, edition of High Country News, knowing that I would be interested in the article on Carlsbad’s bid for the new pit facility. Never have I seen a clearer illustration of the aphorism that where you stand depends upon where you sit. My viewpoint may be […]

Is Carlsbad to become another Hanford, Wash., nuclear cleanup project (HCN, 9/1/03: Courting the bomb)? Hanford is now the largest U.S. government Superfund toxic site, requiring more engineers and technicians for cleanup than were ever used in its lifetime of producing plutonium. It took a large flow of water from the Columbia River to cool […]

Being in the county adjacent to Nye County, Nev., where Yucca Mountain may actually store nuclear waste one day, I am not at all comfortable knowing a mere 15 miles separates the counties. Even Carlsbad, N.M., seems too close for producing plutonium triggers for new bombs (HCN, 9/1/03: Courting the bomb). I propose an idea: […]