People and wildlife feel the loss of Chatfield’s trees Re: “6,000 trees removed from Chatfield,” Feb. 25 news story Major damage has been done to one of Colorado’s premier state parks. Chatfield State Park has been damaged, disfigured, and stripped of healthy trees, over 6,000, with more to die. The Corps of Engineers calls the removal of the trees “technically sound, environmentally acceptable and economically justified.” Anyone who has ever visited Chatfield before this shocking destruction will call it “heartbreaking.” Chatfield had the distinction of being one of the best places in northeast Colorado to recreate. Boaters, birding groups, families, bicyclists and others loved the forests of trees. Deer, elk, foxes, and other animals called the forest home. Bald eagles gathered on the ice in winter. Now the trees are gone. With the loss of the forests, the animals lost habitat and their numbers will be greatly reduced. The 100,000 replacement trees and shrubs planted as part of the project are small, pencil-sized plants, which may or may not survive the drought gripping the area. Bear Creek Lake Park may be next. More heartbreak. Doris Cruze, Centennial Misplaced credit — and blame — for crime trends Re: “Trump’s State of the Union is strong as he delivers safety to Colorado,” Feb. 25 commentary, and “Is it wise, Rep. Evans, to align with this administration?” Feb. 26 letter to the editor To begin, I second the letter writer suggesting Rep. Gabe Evans should campaign on his own reputation instead of following in President Trump’s wake. Trump may lead the GOP, but his control of crime is overstated and his support for effective law enforcement is seriously dubious. Evans states that violent crime dramatically decreased across U.S. cities in 2025. It’s encouraging to hear this, and I want to congratulate all the officers, prosecutors, and politicians who helped reduce urban crime. However, the vast majority of cities with large homicide rate decreases are led by Democrat mayors (Denver included). And on Jan. 3, 2025, the U.S. District Attorney’s Office reported violent crime in Washington, D.C. had reached a 30-year low. How does Evans explain these numbers? In fact, per the Pew Research Center, U.S. violent crime has been trending downward precipitously since 1993. So, perhaps we should admit that crime trends are a complicated phenomenon not controlled by the party in power. Secondly, Trump himself has pardoned umpteen convicted criminals since taking office in 2025. Amongst the pardonees’ crimes are: assault of a police officer, drug trafficking, identity theft, second-degree murder, wire fraud, and Medicare fraud. Besides pardoning the January 6th rioters, he also pardoned former Honduran president Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was serving a 45-year sentence for using his position to help smuggle 400 tons of cocaine into the U.S. and helping other traffickers evade arrest. Are these the actions of a president who is “reversing the many years of rising crime and chaos?” Megan Hartmann, Denver Men’s team diminishes gold-medal win with laughter My wife and I watched every hockey game leading up to the Gold Medal event won by the U.S. women’s and men’s hockey teams. It was especially meaningful since my wife is of Canadian heritage. Nonetheless, we cheered the efforts of both teams as they progressed to the medal rounds. Truly, we were ambivalent about the victory over Canada, since both the U.S. and Canadian teams played so well and represented their countries in the highest spirit of the Olympic Games. Related Articles Let citizens elect U.S. attorney general to deweaponize the Department of Justice (Letters) Sad State of the Union: President stresses division to a country in need of collaboration (Letters) Colorado mountains’ reduced snowpack — a sign of things to come or temporary? (Letters) Unfair or not, Colorado proposal would redistrict Republicans out of Congress (Letters) Bondi testimony proves she’s out of her depth as AG (Letters) Sadly, the men’s team diminished their effort by laughing at the chauvinistic comment made by President Trump during his congratulatory call, inviting the team to the State of the Union Address, namely that he (Trump) better also invite the women’s team or he would be impeached. This was met by derisive laughter in the locker room, where, coincidentally, the director of the FBI was chugging a beer and joining in the uproar. One could excuse the celebratory spirit in the locker room in the aftermath, but to allow themselves to be played by the president was regretful, if not naively ignorant, given the present state of affairs that exists between Canada and the United States. For a team so successful in their sport, they should have reacted differently than to allow themselves to be used for political purposes. Philip Arreola, Denver Sign up for Sound Off to get a weekly roundup of our columns, editorials and more. To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail. ...read more read less