Hunters support wildlife

Your Sunday editorial "Grizzlies rally for a comeback" is a juvenile, emotional, poorly written and thought-out piece that takes a gratuitous swipe at modern hunters, erroneously inferring that they are responsible for putting tigers, eagles, wolves and grizzly bears on the endangered species list. In reality, nearly all creatures on that list are there because of dwindling and fractured habitat (which you barely mention) and clashes with civilization — not because of modern, scientifically regulated hunting.

Historically, most of our great wildlife conservationists, including those that were instrumental in bringing many species back from the brink of extinction in the late 1800s and early 1900s, have been hunters — Theodore Roosevelt, George Bird Grinnell, Aldo Leopold and others. Today, organizations made up mostly of hunters (Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Foundation for North American Wild Sheep, Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife, etc.) preserve thousands of acres of wildlife habitat each year, benefiting many species of wildlife. By contrast, most of the anti-hunting wildlife organizations in Utah misspend a large portion of their funds and efforts fighting hunters and hunting.

If grizzly bears are ever legally hunted in the United States again, it will not be to their detriment. And the considerable money such a hunt would generate would be channeled back into grizzly bear habitat and management, to their overall benefit.

Richard Turner

Heber City