As a hunter and conservationist, I found your essay “The Kindness of Hunters” insulting, naive and decidedly inappropriate for a publication trying to advance the case of conservation in the West (HCN, 11/9/09). Hunters are somewhat used to being caricatured as a bunch of bloodthirsty bubbas, but this is the first time I recall us being characterized as some sort of sinister terrorist class. It hit a new low.

Lee Gustafson 
Laurel, Montana

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The unkindness of essays

by Lee Gustafson, High Country News
December 7, 2009

<h1>The unkindness of essays</h1> <p class="byline">by Lee Gustafson, High Country News <br />December 7, 2009</p> <p>As a hunter and conservationist, I found your essay “The Kindness of Hunters” insulting, naive and decidedly inappropriate for a publication trying to advance the case of conservation in the West (<a href="../41.19/the-kindness-of-hunters">HCN, 11/9/09</a>). Hunters are somewhat used to being caricatured as a bunch of bloodthirsty bubbas, but this is the first time I recall us being characterized as some sort of sinister terrorist class. It hit a new low.<br /><em><br />Lee Gustafson&nbsp; <br />Laurel, Montana</em></p> <div class="wp-block-group hcn-print-edition-box"> <p>This article appeared in the <a href="/?p=189295">print edition of the magazine</a> with the headline <span class="hcn-magtitle">The unkindness of essays</span>.</p> </p></div> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/41-21/the-unkindness-of-essays/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info Country News&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/www.hcn.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/cropped-HCN_Logo-Monogram_White_Sq-2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;amp;quality=100&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=114532&amp;amp;ga4=G-0NS3WVPPTN&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://country-survey-collabs.info/issues/41-21/the-unkindness-of-essays/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hcn.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

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