Wyoming Wildlife magazine - 5

MAILBAG
REED IS INSPIRING
Tom Reed's stories continue to inspire me after
reading his piece in the July 2020 magazine. What an
awareness of the human spirit and refreshing outdoor
thoughts in a troubled time. I think I'll take a walk.
Jim Lambert
Cheyenne
YOU SAUNTER THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS
I enjoyed Tom Reed's essay about "The rite of the
walk" in the July 2020 magazine. It reminded me of
John Muir's little essay about hiking versus sauntering.
In French, the word senter means a path.
Here is Muir's note: I don't like either the word
[hike] or the thing. People ought to saunter in the
mountains - not "hike!" Do you know the origin
of that word saunter? It's a beautiful word. In the
Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the
holy land, and when people in the villages through
which they passed asked where they were going they
would reply, "A la sainte terre," which means, "To
the holy land." And so they became known as sainteterre-ers or saunterers. Now these mountains are our
holy land, and we ought to saunter through them
reverently, not hike through them.
Lew Becker
Bend, Oregon
STRESS ON THE FISH
I read with great interest the fine article on fish
bacteria in the March issue. I was reminded of my
father's concern about the catch-and-release program
of the 1960s, and is still being practiced today. He
was a microbiologist and an avid fly fisherman. He

believed the tearing of the mouth - even a hole -
was an entrance for bacteria causing the health of
the fish to be in question, not to mention the stress
of handling.
Of course folks can keep fishing, but I hope they
would think about the stress on the fish, and causing
released fish to develop a disease or infection and
have a fine fish for dinner instead.
Jo Mack
Bondurant
Jo,
Catch-and-release regulations have gained
popularity over the years and have become common
in some areas of the country. The general purpose of
these regulations are to minimize harvest aimed at
improving the quality of a fishery or maintaining the
viability of a population. The majority of Wyoming's
waters are not managed as catch-and-release.
However, managers have used this tool in some
areas of the state. Many factors can affect a fishery's
population and Wyoming Game and Fish fisheries
managers monitor them regularly to determine the
productivity of these waters.There has been quite a bit
of research on mortality rates relating to catch-andrelease type regulations since the 1960s. Typically,
mortality is not significant enough to harm the
populations due to catch-and-release. However, as
the water temperatures increase during the summer
months using proper techniques to catch-and-release
fish becomes increasingly important. Game and Fish
publishes proper techniques in our fishing regulations
to minimize injury to fish being caught and released.
~Alan Osterland, Chief of Fisheries

GET IN TOUCH

Address letters to wyomingwildlife@
wyo.gov or Wyoming Wildlife, 5400
Bishop Blvd., Cheyenne, WY 82006.
Please include your name, city and
state. Letters may be edited for grammar, typographical errors and length.
Letters selected for publication
represent the volume received on any
given topic and their relevance to
recent issues of the magazine.
You can also send us a
message through our Facebook
page at facebook.com/
wyomingwildlifemagazine.

FISH TALES
Our readers help us celebrate
Fish Fridays at facebook.com/
wyomingwildlifemagazine.
Visit our Facebook page to contribute.

Submitted by Cody Brady

Submitted by Valerie Peck

Submitted by Jeff Browning

Wyoming Wildlife | 5

http://www.facebook.com/ http://www.facebook.com/

Wyoming Wildlife magazine

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wyoming Wildlife magazine