March 4, 2009 Miramichi Leader It is time for a change in the government Roger Babin Letter to the editor It is time for a change in the government for the sake of animals in the forests of New Brunswick. UPM and Weyerhaeuser have brought our forests down to strips of trees and large blocks of clear cuts. Now Irving is coming and cutting the strips that were left and chipping them. We went on a tour of an Irving chipping operation on Kent license number 5 with two Weyerhaeuser representatives, three DNR officers and one Irving mechanic. We were told by one DNR officer that the reason primary red spruce was being chipped was because there was no other use for it other than pulp or fuel. These DNR officers work for the public and are paid by our government, not the forest industry, but any time the forest industry does anything destructive to the environment they get approval from DNR and keep on doing it. Premier Graham’s suggestion to cut in “unused deer winter areas” is a low blow as these areas are always used, if not by deer, by moose, coyotes, bobcats, birds, mice and many other species, especially when there is not much forest left besides these deer winter areas that have been saved for wildlife. Past forestry operations allowed by DNR have shown us wildlife and the environment is not important to DNR and forest companies. We need another department in the government formed by people who don’t only worry about their pay cheques but want to help the environment and animals. Ever since the closures of major mills in the Miramichi area, cutting operations have increased. It reminds me of a bunch of vultures stripping a dead animal’s carcass, the dead animal being our forests. So we know one thing, we had Donald Arseneault as Minister of Natural resources, now we have Wally Stiles, we also had Keith Ashfield and Jeannot Volpe who all shared the same goal, to clear cut our crown land. Can the environment afford to wait for the next election? It’s time for a change, now!