A STORY THAT ROCKS

Thank you for such a beautiful piece in “Precious Metalheads” (November 2025). There were tears streaming down my face as I read it. I couldn’t attend the festival, but it sounded incredible.

I’m currently in the process of purchasing a building with a couple of other folks in my town that will be used mainly as a music venue and community art space. I hope we can draw inspiration from the Firekeepers Alliance and do something as impactful for the youth in our community.

Kira Hannum Anacortes, Washington

DON’T FORGET THE BEAVERS!

In the article “Conservationists make an (intentional) mess in Mendocino” (November 2025), there is no mention of adding beavers to the mix to improve the watershed. They provide a lot more benefits to the salmon than just playing with heavy equipment and logs.

Ponding behind beaver dams provides cover, food and slack water for the young salmon to thrive. They also improve groundwater levels and generate hyporheic flows, which tend to stabilize the water temperatures. They tend to regulate flows by storing water during high flows and slowly releasing it during periods of low flows. They reconnect the streams with their floodplains, which improves this buffering effect and also improves the riparian habitat for both vegetation and other wildlife. This encourages resilience to fire events, providing refugia and even fireabreaks.

Best of all, the beavers will continuously maintain their work. They will rapidly repair their dams, dig canals to spread the water out on the floodplains and provide multi-threaded channels.

Beaver and salmon coexisted for millennia, and it is said that beaver taught salmon how to jump.

Jim Shepherd Sparks, Nevada

A TOPIC WORTH CHEWING OVER

Your article in the November issue “A toothless conspiracy theory” about water fluoridation was far from your usual excellent research and reporting. Here in Portland, Oregon, the water is not fluoridated and never has been. Voters have turned it down four times, most recently in 2012.

While I agree that fluoride is an excellent topical treatment for teeth, I cannot see why ingesting it can be a good thing. The money cities spend fluoridating their water would be better spent providing free or low-cost dental care to low-income families.

Marian Rhys Portland, Oregon

Ban, then study, is not a plan. What is an ideological discussion for those with regular access to dental care is a harsh reality for those on the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum. If you’re going to end the program of optimally fluoridated community water, you need to establish a baseline so that comparisons can be made when decay goes up in the community. It is well established that it will. Food stamps do not allow for the purchase of toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss or fluoride rinses. Many poor families share a toothbrush. Optimally fluoridated community water has offset the lack of oral health literacy, and it has been a well-established public health policy in many areas for 80 years. Please do not place this burden on those who do not have regular access to dental care.

John P. Fisher, DDS Naples, Florida

MOURNING A VANISHING TREE

I just finished “Portrait of a Vanishing Tree” (October 2025) about the emerald ash borer in Oregon, and I have to say it’s the best thing I’ve read all year. I’ve been a subscriber for 25 years, I think, and the magazine just keeps getting better.

Rusty Austin Rancho Mirage, California

That was an excellent piece on the Oregon ash. The tree joins Port Orford cedar, sugar pine, white pine, tanoak and others as sacrifices on the altar of free trade. We know that exotic fungi/insects can decimate species that have no resistance to these invaders. We could build effective barriers to the entry of forest-killing pathogens. We could fund APHIS like we mean it. We could keep these critters out and study the ones that might get through, so we can fight them when they get here. But we don’t. We don’t spend the money. Free trade is actually incredibly expensive.

Rich Fairbanks Jacksonville, Oregon

LEARNING FROM NATURE

Laureli Ivanoff’s article “Working together is everything” (September 2025) is a beautiful story. I’m ready to book a trip to Eaton Island. I so hope climate change hasn’t reworked the environment too much yet. Her story spoke loudly of the togetherness and love so important to a family.

Rick Bass’ “Guardians of Our Food” (September 2025) is also a beautifully written article. I’m dumbfounded daily that humans have yet to learn what nature screams to teach. I so hope Bass and his neighbors can keep the Yaak and Black Ram pristine.

Katherine Brown Cochise, Arizona

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