Letters to the editor Aug. 25

Berries are for bears

Apparently, this is a terrible year for huckleberries. I read today that professional berry pickers are getting around 10% of their average crop.  

The critical factor is that bears and other wild animals are also only getting 10% of their berries.  We can live with out huckleberries, wild animals can not.

Huckleberries can’t be grown commercially, so every berry a human eats is wildlife food. We’ve stolen their habitat and are now stealing a main food source.

Look at the huge displays of huckleberry jam in stores, the plethora of huckleberry products sold in gift stores. This is unsustainable and harmful on every level to wild animals.

The solution is clear. We must prohibit commercial picking of huckleberries everywhere, now.

Humans can get other food sources, we do not need to profit from stealing a critical food source from our beautiful, struggling wildlife.

— Jerri Swenson and Roy Jacobs, Kalispell

More DMV frustrations

I can totally relate to the letter by Doug Adams in the Aug. 18 issue of the Daily Inter Lake. My husband and I went into the Flathead County Department of Motorized Vehicles office to get three items taken care of. First of all, our wait was 1 1/2 hours, but if we could get the items taken care of, we were fine. Unfortunately our items did not get taken care of.

We purchased a UTV from Walmart Marketplace and needed to get it licensed. We had paperwork showing the manufacturer selling it to Walmart and shipping it to us. We also had a copy of the invoice showing the sale by Walmart to us. This was not sufficient. We needed something showing Walmart signing ownership over to us. This was an online sale and never had any really human to human contact, so there was no one to sign off. They would not license. I am still trying to get something from either the manufacturer or Walmart. It has been three months.

We had a trailer that we bought from a third party. The trailer was owned by a trust. The woman whose name was on the trust signed off on it. This was not enough; there had to be special paperwork filled out, even though the “Jane Doe” trust was signed for by “Jane Doe.” The trust has been closed and no one exists who can be contacted.

And thirdly, we brought a utility trailer with us when we moved here. We wanted to license it. In Oregon, it was under the size that needs to have a license, so it was never registered. We had purchased it about 35 years ago. They would not license unless we could supply a registration or bill of sale (from 35 years ago).

So our two hours spent at the DMV was for naught, and the employee we dealt with was useless and very unhelpful. I can relate to the frustration that Doug had, as they are very unhelpful.

— Merlyn Wright, Bigfork