Not ready to make nice

Ben Long’s “Writers on the Range” article (Telegraph, Feb. 15) advocates for environmentalists and ranchers to work together toward preserving Western land; a noble goal. However, he makes no mention of the huge carbon footprint of livestock over the centuries – livestock is responsible for nearly 20% of global greenhouse gases that are causing the climate catastrophe.

He makes no mention of the pittance in grazing fees ranchers pay to the federal government for rights to graze on public land and the disgusting bovine diarrhea everywhere on those lands, especially in the pristine mountain water. He makes no mention of the horrific deforestation around the globe to create grazing land for cows, and he makes no mention of the fact that literally everyone of the ranches in the United States is a legacy property inherited from someone who stole the land from the First Nations People who lived sustainably with the bison and had no need for cows.

So, when he says we should collaborate, what I hear him saying is, just shut up environmentalists.

Jonathan Romeo’s article (Feb. 15) discusses the potential for a bike trail between Durango and Hermosa, a fantastic idea. But I’ll take it one step further, how about we get rid of that obnoxiously loud, horribly polluting and major fire-hazard train? By simply removing the steel tracks and the railroad ties, we’d have the single greatest bike trail on the planet! People would come from all over the world to ride that trail. And, the righteous green liberals of Durango would no longer have to live with the hypocrisy of having a coal-fired train in their town.

– Paul Larson, SW Colorado