Fees fund Fish & Game programs in area, state

A few weeks ago there was an article in our newspaper about a 13-year-old girl from Kalispell, Mont., who shot a very large elk. A very proud moment, even for a teenager.

A few days later someone wrote a letter about how gruesome it was. Well you must not hunt, eat meat or have anyone in your home who is a hunter.

Right now we have a lot of snow in town and much more in the mountains and some of those animals that you were talking about are going to be starving to death because they don't have any food to eat or aren't able to get around through the deep snow.

A few days ago we have had a very large moose roaming around our neighborhood. It was in our yard looking for food, pruning our apple trees. The snow in our yard at that time was 26 inches deep. Its tracks were 24 inches deep and as large as it was, I'm pretty sure that it was using up most of its energy and fat reserve to walk through the deep snow.

It did take advantage of some of the paths that my husband had made with the snow blower.

Since the late 1800s, there have been wildlife conservation laws and refuges in the United States, but there also has been the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service set up since the 1940s. This agency distributes federal funds for wildlife conservation and helps control animals which are harmful to soil and livestock.

Our hunting and fishing licenses pay for some of their services. Animal life has suffered as man has made progress. The clearing of forests, the draining of swamps, damming of rivers, and other steps taken to development of agriculture, mining and industry have been a great benefit to civilization when these activities were wisely planned, but one of the bad results have been the disappearance of much of the wild animals natural homes.

Ask most hunters in North Idaho why they hunt. Most will say that it's their winter larder and with the economy now, need I say any more?

KAY BERRY

Sandpoint