November 24, 2009 Conservation Council of New Brunswick Tracy Glynn and Betty St. Pierre Kedgwick women present petition to government against forest spraying Fredericton - Betty St. Pierre will be in Fredericton today, November  24, to present a petition of over 5,000 signatures against aerial  spraying of the forest to the government at the Legislature at 1:00pm.  St. Pierre says her message for the provincial government is to ban all  pesticides. In addition to the petition, she and a group of women have  held community demonstrations in Kedgwick against spraying the forest. On September 4th people working in the woods of Northern New Brunswick,  including over 50 women planting trees, were doused with chemicals from  a helicopter spraying the public forest to kill hardwoods in a young  softwood plantation. St. Pierre, a spokeswoman for the group of people  who say they were sprayed, says that the people sprayed experienced  running eyes, sore throats, nausea and other symptoms after being  sprayed with herbicide. Many of the women and men are afraid to speak publicly about the event  for fear of losing their jobs planting trees. St. Pierre, who scales  trees for a living, says that somebody needs to speak up. “We have had  enough. They are scaring people by telling them there will be no work.” St. Pierre says that since the incident many people have relayed stories  of people getting sprayed while fishing or working in the woods. “A man  reported fish kills along a stream here after the last spraying. It is  not normal to do that to the forest. We can't prove we are sick because  of the spraying but cancer and pesticides have been linked. People are  starting to question why do so many people in our community, in Northern  New Brunswick, have cancer and rare cancers.” The Conservation Council of New Brunswick supports the efforts of Betty  St. Pierre and others in her community who are calling on the provincial  government to take the toxins out of our forest. "There is something  fundamentally wrong with the way we treat people, workers and the forest  of New Brunswick," stated Tracy Glynn, Forest Campaigner with the  Conservation Council. "The province of New Brunswick is planning to  increase the area of plantations on public lands to 28%. More  plantations will mean an increase in herbicide spraying. Why is the  government ignoring scientists working with the Greater Fundy Ecosystem  Research Group who recommend plantations not exceed more than 15% of the  forest area in order to preserve the biodiversity?" No herbicides have been sprayed on Quebec's public forest since 2001. -30- Betty St. Pierre, 506 284-0847 Tracy Glynn, 506 458-8747, forest@conservationcouncil.ca