Does it really work? How a letter to the editor saved the bears!

Last year a person wrote to the editor bemoaning the fact that trains had killed bears. In her zeal she suggested that trains toot their whistle often and be restrained, and their slower travel would save the bears and end the needless killing.

It was with great glee that I read some research just recently that in 2012 no bears were killed by trains. And I began to wonder why.

I found myself pondering whether the engineers had found caring and humanity, and slowed their trains, but that would have made the news because deliveries would have been delayed. I wondered if the bears had read the news and spread the information and worked on speeding up a bit, knowing the trains were going that fast, but how many bears can read?

I thought maybe all the slow bears had been culled from the herd and we have created, naturally, a new faster breed through the genetic pool, for science purports adaptation as a major factor in nature. I rejected the thought that all the slow bears were gone, as we see them now and again by the side of the road, and they lumber rather than fly.

I finally came to the only conclusion available to me. The letter to the editor had changed nature. I read all sorts of letters to the editor and wonder what good they do, but the only change in this matter was that a letter was written and the editor chose to publish it in the paper. That has to be it!

Somehow, printing ideas in the paper saved the bears. No longer will I demean someone who writes an inane letter without facts or support. From now on, I will applaud the newspaper for printing that submission and know that it will impact the world for the better.

Now, if someone could write as to how to find my keys; they’re always in the last place I look.

Winnifred Storli is a resident of Kalispell.