Editor:

Judge's decision threatens our existence:

When I was a younger man, I wanted to be a Wyoming game warden, game manager. I wanted to introduce and manage wolves and protect and manage grizzly bears and bobcats.

They were considered predatory animals at that time. I wanted to propagate and share the wildlife resource to the benefit of our land managers so they would never have to sell out. "Incentives for Wildlife Habitat Enhancement," so to speak.

Unfortunately, the Wyoming Game and Fish was ill equipped to undertake such endeavors. I decided I could be of more benefit from outside the department..

Environmentalist should mean: "A person who has a farming or ranching operation, practices noxious weed management, exercises good grazing practices and enhances the natural environment to the benefit of all native species." Not someone who forces his misguided aspirations upon others through judicial and political processes.

In the future we are going to have to rely even more so upon a natural environment and the people whose livelihoods are threatened by too many wolves and grizzlies. Their ability to increase the carrying capacity for game animals and all creatures must be protected.

Coyotes and other small predators that help keep rodents and grasshoppers in check are also in peril.

Our riparian areas are recovering from overgrazing in protected areas which is why the Canadian Gray Wolf was introduced.

Judge Donald Molloy's preliminary injunction that reinstated Endangered Species Act protections will cause more damage, heartache, eventual famine and destruction than any other action could ever cause.

Judge Molloy will have complicity in the greatest environmental catastrophe that will ever hit the Western United States.

Hopefully, Sen. John Barrasso, our state's wildlife agencies and sportsmen's groups will be able to overcome this injustice before it is too late.

CHARLES F. KIRKHAM Jr., Wapiti