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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

PO Box 180

Jefferson City, MO 65102

Feeling Lighter

Life was feeling heavy this morning until savoring the article Violets of Missouri [March, Page 16]. Well written, beautifully photographed, and full of reasons to love all our relations.

Brian Page via email                  

To Keep or Release?

I really enjoyed To Keep or Release? [February, Page 10]. Several years ago, we discovered you can reduce the chance of fish swallowing live bait by placing the bait on a jig head hook. For some reason, 99 percent of the time they will not swallow the hook, which reduces injury to the fish. We use this method with earthworms, but it should also be effective while using other live baits.

Danny Marshall
Steelville

I really enjoyed and appreciated Andrew Branson’s To Keep or Release? As an avid tournament bass fisherman, this article brought many good facts, information, and fish care habits that we, as tournament anglers, need to incorporate into our tournament fishing to take better care of the fish. 

Steve Ruff via email

The Soggy Side

I am a long-time reader of your magazine. The Soggy Side by Matt Seek absolutely blew me out of the water [February, Page 20]. His article was easy to read, and I felt like he was sitting in the room telling me this wetland story.

Barbara Doshi via email

Three toes?

I have had the privilege of receiving the Missouri Conservationist since I moved away from my childhood home and started college. I am now 67. I have enjoyed every issue, shared used copies at my dentist’s and doctors’ offices, or pulled out pages and put them in interested neighbors’ mailboxes. I have ordered your magazine for nieces and nephews and currently have the kids’ edition going to great-nieces and great-nephews. And I couldn’t get through the year without your Natural Events Calendar, which you keep so affordable, yet top class, and filled with information. 

With that said, I have one question — why would you post a front cover showing a splendid picture of a turtle that is called “three-toed,” when the picture distinctly shows five toes?

Anne Gleeson via email 

Editors’ note: We get this question a lot. The “three toes” in the common name of the three-toed box turtle is in reference to its hind feet, not its front feet, which were pictured prominently on the cover of the March issue. —The Editors