BERRIES: Got a bone to pick

I pulled into Dairy Queen on Appleway in Coeur d’Alene recently with a buddy for something cool … and instead ended up hot under the collar.

There in the parking lot was a North Idaho pick-up truck, the bed piled with huckleberry bushes that had been sheared off in the forests for their prized fruit. The culprits and a car-load or two of friends were “picking” berries in the DQ parking lot, then taking them inside for an illegal huckleberry parfait.

Shame on you! I wish I’d written down your license plates! You might think you’re making easy work for yourself, but you’re not only breaking the law, you’re giving a bad name to the rest of us who look forward to REAL huckleberry picking, AND you’re killing a truck-load of bushes that likely will never produce again, or at least won’t for decades.

C’mon, people! Grab a plastic bucket by the bail and get your fingers — and seat of your pants — stained a little purple! Or better yet, stick to huckleberry parfaits from Roger’s, and leave the real picking to the ones who get it.

BOB BAKER

Coeur d’Alene