More than 60 years ago, Rachel Carson warned of the coming “Silent Spring” as pesticides threatened bird populations. Now the climate emergency is devastating bird populations. Birds are not the only animals facing extinction. Yet the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish continues to promote hunting and trapping wildlife, while turning a blind eye to violations of their rules and regulations. It is appropriate that the Santa Fe New Mexican featured these two stories together on the front page of its October 17 issue, as they highlight opposite approaches to wildlife.

Game Department policies have hardly changed since they were first put in place by Aldo Leopold’s Game Protective Association, the predecessor of today’s New Mexico Wildlife Federation. Leopold spent decades working to eradicate wolves and mountain lions from New Mexico. Rachel Carson, who devoted her life to protecting wildlife, aptly described…