Air Date: Week of November 9, 2001

This week we dip into our mailbag to hear what listeners have to say.

Transcript

ROSS: It's Living On Earth. I'm Pippin Ross and coming up, the natural capitalism of hurricanes. But first-- time for comments from our listeners.

Our story about fire look-outs had KUNM listener Bill Sayre reminiscing about summers he spent as a fire watcher on Kimama Butte in Idaho and Elden Mountain above Flagstaff, Arizona. He liked our report but had a correction. He said "Lookouts know fire like native Alaskans know snow. But, if a lookout sees flames, then they're too close. It's knowing all about smoke, not fire, that tells the difference between tree fires, brush fires, and dust rising from a gravel road."

Jan Yaeger listens to Living On Earth on KUFM from Missoula, Montana. She wrote in to clarify why the red wolf reintroduction program at Great Smoky Mountains National Park was shut down. We said the problem was too few deer in the park for the wolves to eat. But Ms. Yaeger says that's a bit misleading. Rather, the issue is that wolves need large amounts of territory, larger than the park itself could provide, and the Smokies are simply surrounded by too much development. Development surrounding our national parks and other natural areas is increasingly causing the loss of biodiversity within those areas, and the failure of the red wolf program in the Smokies is just one example.

We welcome your comments, criticisms and clarifications. Call our Listener Line anytime at 1-800-218-9988. That's 800-218-9988. Or write to Eight Story Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138. Our e-mail address is letters@loe.org. Once again, letters@loe.org. And visit our web page at www.loe.org. That's www.loe.org. CD's, tapes, and transcripts are $15.00.