Letter to the Editor: An Outdoorsman’s Vote

The great outdoors will only be preserved if we pass on the pleasures of living in it. Gathering wild mushrooms in the fall or spring leads you to new places and asks you to look closely at the ground. The sound of geese whirling over corn fields at dawn or ducks parachuting into a pond quickens your heart and asks you to look up. Sitting absolutely still for hours on end in a stand hearing only the rustle of falling leaves and your slow breath is an outdoorsman’s meditation. The crunch of frosty snow beneath your skis and the soft hoot of an owl can carry you on for miles beneath a full moon. Drifting slowly over a weed bed, the anticipation grows with each cast knowing a finned monster waits beneath.   

Dressing out the birds you shoot or filleting up fresh walleye and perch and sharing your catch with friends and family connects you to the cycle of life and grounds you in the natural world. It is important those who represent us and make policy for the state and nation understand these pursuits. Only then will our traditions be preserved. Hunters, fishers, foragers, hikers, campers, kayakers, boaters, skiers, and climbers are the advocates for the natural environment. They know the seasons first hand, pick rampion in the spring, gather wild berries through the summer, dig wild horseradish, harvest birds and fish and mammals in the winter, spring, summer and fall, prepare and preserve and share the fruits of the wild.

The earth provides if we protect it. The earth teaches us about ourselves. We are the greatest destroyers of life on earth. We can be the preservationists, but we will only preserve that which we enjoy and understand.

Senator Caleb Frostman understands. Candidate for Congress Beau Liegeois understands. Vote for both of them November 6. They are exceptional young men who know the great outdoors. They will work to preserve the great outdoors for all of us and for our generations to come.

John Rybski

Algoma,Wis.