This letter is in response to the Oct. 14 article in Summit Daily News titled “Colorado Parks and Wildlife says hunting is legal on Silverthorne trail system where 2 moose were recently shot.” While I agree that hunters have right to hunt on public lands, I don’t agree that hunting in the Salt Lick area near the Wildernest community is at all appropriate. The hunter who recently harvested a cow moose and her yearling put a huge number of local residents in danger. Those trails are highly used by residents, their children and pets. Most of these residents aren’t aware that hunters may be lurking in the trees. Also, housing and Interstate 70 are very close to the area. Hunting in that area is just asking for trouble, completely unnecessary because Summit County has plenty of safer areas for hunting.

Hunting rules are controlled by Colorado Parks and Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service, either agency could prohibit hunting in this popular area like they do for campgrounds and ski areas. I encourage people to write to the U.S. Forest Service’s Dillon Ranger District and Colorado Parks and Wildlife to demand they prohibit hunting near Salt Lick.