LETTER TO THE EDITOR GUIDE

Need help in drafting a letter to the editor of your local paper? Here are a few tips and tricks.

Consider your audience: LTE’s reach a broad base of readers with varying degrees of interest and concern for the topic at hand. Be respectful of that entire audience. You’re seeking to influence public opinion. Best to do it rationally.
Be factual: you’re expressing an opinion. And the more factual you are, the more relevant your opinion will be.
Be concise: many news outlets limit the size of LTEs. 500 words or less is a common cap.
Be careful with personal information: you never know who’s reading.
Be polite: too strong a language, expletives, rants and calls for pitch forks and flaming torches will quite likely have your letter rejected by the editor.

Need an example? Here’s one about our mountain lion management issue published in March of 2026.

** BUT PLEASE NOTE: the below example is for demonstration purposes only. A personalized approach with YOUR voice, YOUR opinion is always the best approach with LTEs.

March 2026

It’s astounding that in the year 2026 man continues to experiment with nature’s natural balance. The latest example is the State of Utah’s policies and practices towards one of our most valued apex predators: the mountain lion.

Over recent years the State has passed legislation and implemented practices to aggressively reduce our cougar populations. These decisions have been made with no opportunity for public review and comment. Yet a large swath of stakeholders - from biologists to hunters, houndsmen, conservationists and the general public - are deeply concerned about the ripple effects of removing such a critical apex predator.

The State’s actions are not for concern of public safety. Vending machines pose more of a public safety risk than cougars. The primary problem is Utah’s declining mule deer population. The State has set a target population of over 400,000 mule deer to support our lucrative hunting industry. Yet it’s been decades since Utah has seen such mule deer numbers. In an attempt to achieve this target, the State has essentially removed most restrictions on cougar hunting because their primary food source is mule deer.

HB125 (2020) and HB469 (2023) have created the following open season on cougars; a year round hunting season that requires only a general hunting license, no kill limits, and the use of traps and snares. Taking this one step further, in December of 2025 Utah’s Division of Wildlife Resources (DWR) entered an agreement with BYU to “study” the effects on deer populations with focused removal of cougars from 6 management units, 4 of which are in southern Utah.

These non-scientific predator management methods raise a vast array of concerns beyond simply depleting a native non-invasive species, including public and pet safety, an increase in mule deer Chronic Wasting Disease, greater stress on the deer’s shrinking ranges, and an increase in livestock and pet predation, just to name a few.

Time and again man’s attempts to alter the natural balance of things has proven to be an obvious mistake. It’s played out with other apex predators such as the wolves and grizzlies. And in other areas, like fire in our national forests, we now know the ramifications of trying to manipulate nature’s rules. The State’s actions risk long-term deer herd stability for short term financial gains, at great expense to Utah’s mountain lions.

A growing number of organizations and community members are banding together to persuade the State to take a more scientific and balanced approach to predator management.

Utah Mountain Lion Conservation offers detailed information on the issue and what we can do as concerned stakeholders to change the State’s alarming cougar management practices. Cougars are a cornerstone of Utah’s natural assets. They help maintain what we value the most about our wonderfully wild state.