Dear Editor,

For those who want to chop down pine, spruce and juniper trees, please research the value of these trees as wildlife food and shelter. Consider how the shade they provide keeps our mountains cool and how they break the wind and hold the soil in place.

  For those who enjoy killing coyotes, foxes, bobcats and cougars and stacking them up like firewood for trophy contests, or hanging their heads grotesquely on barren walls, please understand that many of us enjoy and value their presence in this ecosystem where they belong.

  And finally for those who speed through our mountain ecosystem in cars, trucks and on motorcycles as if there is nothing of beauty to be seen, killing birds and wildlife that dare to cross a road, please go back to your concrete, steel and glass jungle in the city where you can merrily speed down the interstate.

  Stop feeling so entitled and show some respect and empathy toward mountain people, pets, forests and wildlife. 

Diane Brown

Eldora