READER POLL: HIKING AND HUNTING

I am glad to hear everyone adheres to the 'we all enjoy and want to conserve the outdoors' perspective here from hunters and hikers. I think its pretty high minded and figure they should get along fine for a long time, just as they always have.

I live in Western Colorado and am a mountain biker, hunter and hiker. It is rare to see hunters on hiking trails during the hunting seasons. Most times game is found in areas away from dedicated hiking trails and so are the hunters. I whunt the same area every year and there are no trails other than game trails where I and my family go so we know if we see another person in the woods that they are hunting too.

This survey is a bit skewed as the questions are geared towards hikers only. I am an avid hiker, cyclist, photographer, backpacker, supporter of green and healthy living, president of a trail association - and I am a bow and gun hunter. Your survey assumes hunters can't be trail friendly. I strongly disagree. I live in a largely rural, wooded and scenic area, and many of the hunters here are also users of trails and bicycles for health and recreation. Your first question is a dead give-away to your survey. As a hunter and hiker, I would generally say no to hunting in national parks, however, there are cases where an over population of a species is actually detrimental to the park. Hunting has proven to be the best avenue to solving that problem. Perhaps you will take my comments into consideration when analyzing the survey results. Keep up your great work. --Ed Allen

When I saw the title I first thought I don't mind hunting while hiking. When I hunted I didn't like hikers much. They spook the game. Now I've picked up too many spent shells to appreciate hunters in Oakland County, Michigan.

As big as it is there is only so much land out there. We don't need to fear ethical hunters but gun nuts are a different issue altogether.

I have no problem with hunting if it kept in check and only if the animal is to be used as much as possible for its: meat, hide, antler / bone, etc. I have done some bow / rifle hunting (though I never shot any thing) in my past not in over 10 years and I do not really have the urge to anymore (I would rather watch or photograph), though I will take meat when it is offered to me by friends and neighbors. As a whole wish that I did not have to worry about hunters, but if hunters are responsible hikers and hunters can coexist, though I am becoming less hopeful with our gun crazed culture now a days.

As a responsible hunter, I realize that encountering hikers that are sharing the forest is part of the "Murphy" factor of hunting. I would hope that my fellow hunters as well as my fellow hikers realize that we all have the right to be in the outdoors. Being respectful of each others enjoyment is everyone's responsibility.