Air Date: Week of September 27, 2002

This week, we dip into the Living on Earth mailbag to hear what listeners have to say.

Transcript

Time for comments now from you, our listeners.

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CURWOOD: Our feature about the remote Yaak Valley in Montana reminded Maine Public Radio listener Tad Runge of the time he spent in the region 40 years ago developing logging roads. "I remember the afternoons when having worked hard to get our work done, we would cut a couple of saplings, attach fishing lines we carried in our vests, turned over rocks in the streams to find periwinkles for bate and fish for the abundant trout we would release back to nature. On our way back home we would stop at the Dirty Shame Saloon for a beer and camaraderie. I wish the residents of the Yaak success in their efforts to preserve that which remains at the wilderness I took so much for granted in my younger days."

But, KQED listener Nathan Landau, from Berkeley, California, was dismayed when he heard author Rick Bass discourage outsiders from visiting the Yaak. Mr. Landau writes, "This attitude gives aid and comfort to the enemies of wilderness preservation. Bass’s equation of potential visitors as takers on par with clear cutting lumber companies didn’t help matters. It’s a shame for Bass to go to the trouble of putting together an anthology to help save the un-logged remnants of that area, then undercut that work with an elitist attitude."

We welcome your comments. You can send them to us at letters@loe.org. Once again, letters@loe.org. Or, call our listener line any time at 800-218-9988. That’s 800-218-9988. And visit our web page at loe.org. That’s loe.org.

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CURWOOD: And you’re listening to NPR’s Living on Earth.