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Letters to the Editor

Submissions reflect readers’ opinions and may be edited for length and clarity. Email Magazine@mdc.mo.gov or write to us:

Missouri Conservationist
P.O. Box 180
Jefferson City, MO 65102

More Awesome Opossums

My husband and I love this magazine, and we learn so much from the wonderful articles. I was pleasantly surprised to learn about our native opossums, and will never again think of them as vermin. They really are amazing creatures.

Andrea Mockridge, Higginsville

The article was probably the best I have ever read in the Conservationist, and you have put out some good ones. How little I knew about this mammal. I may not love them yet, but I sure like them a whole lot better. I’m sure I will grow to love them now that I have this new respect for them.

Terry Thompson via email

Thanks for the awesome magazines that come in the mail each month. I always enjoy the articles I read, especially the Awesome Opossums that came in the August issue. It was eye-opening to see how useful opossums are to a neighborhood, and why they are called opossums as well. Many people I know don’t even like looking at them, so thank you for publishing this article to teach them how much every part of nature matters, even the ugly parts. As a Boy Scout, I love nature, and the Missouri Conservationist helps support that every month.

Alexander Ficken, Maplewood

Hooray for Magazines

Thank you for producing a wonderfully informative and interesting magazine! My kids enjoy the magazine so much that they often steal my copy and compete to be the first to read the kids version of the magazine [Xplor]. The Missouri Conservationist has made me more aware of all the programs that the department offers. Keep up the great work and keep the print issues coming! There is simply no replacement for print magazines. I love having my kids on either side of me while we read and look at pictures. When I’m done with the magazine, I leave it in public places so others can read about the great things that the department is doing.

Dan Grzina, St. Charles

Thanks for the Memories

Your August cover immediately took me back to my childhood in the 1950s. Between the ages of 8–12, my dad and I would walk a path just like the cover to fish in the Lamine River at Otterville. A distant relative of my dad’s lived in an old log cabin back in the woods above the river. He kept an old rowboat tied up and we were allowed to come and use it. How I loved going fishing with my dad then. On the same land, we would follow a similar path to mushroom hunt. I felt like Daniel Boone in those days.

Between ages 10–12, you would find my friends and I on our bikes, lunches packed, and off to a place where we would hike deep into the woods like your cover. The trail would lead us to a high ledge with a small cave. It was called Sunshine Rock. We would sit on that rock, eat our lunch, look out across the tops of trees and think we were on top of the world. Thank you for bringing those long ago years back to me just from looking at the August cover.

Ramona Allen, Sedalia

Opossums

I found this article [Awesome Opossums, August] one of the best I have read in the Missouri Conservationist. I have been a reader for more than 40 years.

Steve Anderson via email

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