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Summit Daily letters: Give hunters their due respect in the wilderness

Give hunters their due respect

Our national forests are for all to use, all year long. This fact is not lost on me. I, and many others, have spent the last four months hiking, scouting, planning and anticipating this last weekend’s opening of the 2016 archery season.

But, instead of peaceful woods and good hunting, I and many others were greeted with a bike race running straight through the elk woods of the Tenmile Range.



Every user of our public lands deserves equal treatment, and it feels like hunters are the black sheep of public use, even though we contribute far more money to the conservation and preservation of said lands. It’s not just the race on Saturday, but the general public’s lack of knowledge that it is indeed hunting season.

“Every user of our public lands deserves equal treatment, and it feels like hunters are the black sheep of public use, even though we contribute far more money to the conservation and preservation of said lands.”

I had a family of five throwing rocks down Tenmile Peak on Saturday, eventually causing a good-sized rock slide just uphill from me. They proceeded to take a route that is not on any trail map that led them straight to me after a sketchy traverse of the scree fields above. Instead of being met with a greeting and an apology, I was reminded that it is public land and that they have just as much a right to put their children in a deadly and dangerous situation.



Another friend of mine had a group of campers blasting dubstep and riding ATVs all through the night. Part of me wanted just to rant a bit, but part of me wonders what can be done to educate people that there are hunters in the woods with them.

I think the U.S. Forest Service could do better in the form of posting at trail heads and campgrounds, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife could do the same. But, at the same time, anyone living here in the mountains should know and be courteous the hundreds or even thousands of hunters who grace this county with their presence and money. We are dealing with more people in these forests than ever, and many of them are calling it home — yet without the respect and reverence that Mother Nature deserves. Cutting trees down for benches, spray painting on trees and camping in non-camping areas. I hope this letter gets to some of these people, and they see the forests as a gift that we should all do everything we can to keep them the way we find them, peaceful, quiet and beautiful.

Cory Schmidt

Breckenridge

Misreading and misleading

Re: Morgan Liddick’s August 29 column “The tarring of Trump supporters has to stop.”

It is not unusual for Liddick to deliberately create distortions of the news. He based his entire column on a misquote! The New York Times stated, “The toxic effects of Trumpism will have to be addressed.” Liddick then ranted and raved about the “Times call for ‘toxic’ Trump supporters to be ‘addressed.’” Two completely different statements.

I like to read conservative viewpoints, however, Liddick does not represent rational conservative thought. Surely other, more thoughtful and coherent conservatives can be enlisted to write for the Summit Daily.

Deborah Hage

Silverthorne


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