To whom it may concern,

I reach out to you today in good faith on behalf of myself to urge your coverage of a relevant topic that affects the future of Montana natural wildlife and conservation. Trophy hunting is seen by many local citizens of the state of Montana to be a popular pastime through the season. While the hunting of abundant, mass populating breeds of animals such as deer, elk, and coyote are essentially a non-factor on the populations of those animals this is not always the case for less protected wildlife. Bears, moose, cougars, bobcats, and other less abundant animals are taken yearly not only with tags, but poaching, and unprotected hunting. Continuing to allow this to happen will drastically harm the population of these animals over time and may lead to an eventual extinction event in the United States on par with the wipe out of our megafauna at the end of the pleistocene.

I insist on the outlawing and banning of the trophy tag hunting of Montana wildlife. Nature will take its course to control the population and human intervention does not need to be a further factor in the population decline of Montana wildlife. Deforestation, pollution, and damming already affects population control of these animals. Why then is it allowed that an animal who fights its entire life to survive, avoiding the already heavy hand of human presence in their world, be put violently to rest to end up as a person's display? I recommend the complete banning of trophy hunting and taking. End the needless killing and put further sanction on poaching and wrongful death. Thank you.