Letters : Mountain Lion Attacks at Caspers Wilderness Park

Your editorial “Responding to Lion Attacks” (Oct. 26) mirrors my own thoughts on the problem at Caspers Wilderness Park. There seems to be a lack of understanding when a park is called a “wilderness park.”

Things are wild in a wilderness park. This is the whole idea--the theme, so to speak, of such a park. The vegetation is not cultivated; the animals are not tame or friendly to humans. We humans seem to have trouble with this concept and seem to focus, instead, on the word “park.”

A park is a place to take a nap under a leafy tree, a place where the kids can run on ahead, exploring every hole in the dirt and the secret sides of logs and rocks.

In parks such as Caspers the emphasis must be on the concept and the meaning of the word “wild,” from whence we get the work “wilderness.” A wilderness is an area that is left in its natural state, with all its natural inhabitants. We must realize that we are the trespassers.

MARJORIE JANSZ

Garden Grove