It's a sad occurrence when one of our own local government representatives such as Josh Heintzeman publicly announces his naivete regarding important decision-making about our (especially local) environment. Heintzeman has evidently not spent enough time in the woods to understand the important delicate balances that our creator has put in place to keep our environmental world healthy. One hopes that he isn't defaulting into the political thinking process of mankind bullying a selfish road through our environmental world as many politicians are observed to do.
There are massive amounts of information that have been assembled by the scientific and natural studies communities that uphold the current wolf population - at a minimum - or even encourage population growth.
Ironically, in the same issue of the Dispatch as Heintzeman's expression of fear while encountering a wolf in the woods, there is an article stating that the deer archery hunt in October of this year, just in Camp Ripley alone, has so far exceeded last year's harvest by almost 20 percent. This demonstrates to us that deer hunting is getting better - not by eliminating wolves, but letting them serve as the natural balance for healthy deer herds.
One hopes deeper thoughts and understandings are given to our region's governing than knee-jerk fear of children's story villains.
Chip Borkenhagen
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Brainerd
Borkenhagen is a Brainerd City Council member
