Letters to the editor for Saturday, July 15, 2017

Protecting wildlife should be on Trump’s agenda

One of the biggest motivators for hunters like me is the thrill of tracking the largest and most wild animals that we can find. The finest examples of that exist in the world’s most remote and untouched places. The crown jewel of those examples are the moose in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

These animals are majestic, and most hunters would give anything for the chance to hunt them in their spectacular habitat in Northern Alaska. Protecting these animals and their habitat should be of critical importance for hunters. One day, nearly all hunters hope to hunt in someplace as remote and wild as the refuge, and protecting that space helps to keep those dreams alive.

Donald Trump ran for president as a friend of sportsmen. But his first budget as president disregards the conservation value that is so critical to sportsmen. He would open the Arctic refuge for drilling by oil and gas companies, jeopardizing the habitat of moose and the dreams of hunters across the country.

This decision is shortsighted and trades the values of a community that supported the president for the profits of private oil companies.

This trade-off is unacceptable, and Congress should reject the president’s call to drill for oil in the Arctic refuge.

Kevin Crow

Gardnerville