December 30, 2009 Telegraph-Journal Daily Gleaner Dousing the forest must stop Tracy Glynn Recently the government of New Brunswick publicly defended its herbicide spraying of the province's public forest (Telegraph-Journal, Dec. 2). With approximately 90 per cent of its forested land under public ownership, the province of Quebec listened to public concerns and banned  herbicide spraying of it's public forest in 2001. Huge spikes in herbicide spraying are expected here, with plans to convert even more of New Brunswick's natural mixed forest to monoculture tree farms. Plantations currently cover approximately 10 per cent of New Brunswick's public forest. The obscene new plan for the forest allows the area of plantations on public lands to almost triple to 28 per cent. Scientists recommend that the area of plantations in New Brunswick not exceed more than 15 per cent of forest area in order to preserve biodiversity. How can the government call the new forest management plan "balanced" when the plan threatens species like song birds that need old mixed wood forest? What are the effects of spraying the forest on our waterways and wildlife? The limited number of studies done in this area show that tadpoles are sensitive to the toxicity effects of glyphosate herbicides, including Vision, that is commonly sprayed on our forest. We hope that the provincial government will listen and act upon the concerns of the thousands of people in Northern New Brunswick, who recently signed a petition against spraying our forest. TRACY GLYNN Fredericton http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/904159 http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/opinion/article/904296