Increasing concern

Three items in the June 13 Bangor Daily News cause me to write. One was Violet Packard’s letter, “Truly a bird of prey.” I have been increasingly concerned over the number of hawks that prey upon our birds at home feeders. This is likely due to a decrease in small birds and an increase in hawks, and although I am not suggesting we start shooting these birds, perhaps the time has arrived when we should not be promoting them.

Our small birds such as the yellow warblers and white-throated sparrows already have many enemies and are greatly reduced in numbers. Likewise the robins are far less common than a few years ago due to the fact that likely they are eating too much poisoned food from lawns which people continue to saturate with herbicides. Assisting the come back of the peregrine falcons only adds to the enemies of these song birds, as fascinating and wonderful as this bird of prey is.

Your editorial, “Look back in anger,” only reminds us of how we are all floundering to come up with laws and harvesting practices that will protect our northern forests. How extremely important these words are, yet we continue to allow clearcutting, forest road building and heavy machinery to tear up the forest floor as well as permit vicious harmful herbicides to be used. All of this is permitted for the sake of the dollar — and how very sad it is!

The front-page article, “Poaching on the rise in Maine,” telling of the seriousness of this matter by game warden Dave Georgia and written by Diana Bowley, points up another matter serious to the future of Maine’s wildlife. We cannot allow in Maine pocahing to threaten the very existence of our wild species as it has in some of the undeveloped countries of the world, to the elephants and rhinoceros for instance, in spite of the programs to save these and other threatened species by the many environmental agencies worldwide. Surely we need more education relative to the value of wildlife and this training should be given to our judges and others who at present do not take illegal poaching seriously.

Charles T. Brown Stockton Springs