Nova Scotia government has approved the use of VisionMax to spray 2,600 hectares of woodland area. It’s a herbicide whose content is 47 percent glyphosate. It’s a product of Monsanto. This is the same company that gave us Agent Orange and PCBs. It’s being used by Northern Pulp and four other companies to retard the development of under-growth and hardwood trees in our province. The World Health Organization says it is a probably carcinogenic, and with one out of every three people dying of Cancer in Nova Scotia, it shows the government favours industry and profit over the people who have elected them.
According to the Conservation Council of new Brunswick, it says, “The IARC panel of 17 experts from 11 countries classified glyphosate as a probable carcinogen based on evidence in human and animal studies. Several studies, including one in Canada, have found a link between occupational exposure to glyphosate and increased risk of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.”
Nova Scotia forests are already threatened by clear-cutting, and eliminating under-growth and hardwood, it will accelerate the decline faster. As well as losing the diversity of our forests that make Nova Scotia beautiful and unique, we will see a decline in wildlife. VisionMax impedes the growth of mosses and lichens which the Moose feed on during the winter. The deer who eat hardwood twigs in the Fall also will eat mosses and lichens and fungi and nuts (typically acorns) in Nova Scotia. Just removing the shade from some of the brooks and rivers will mean a decline in trout, and if there isn’t any hardwood, it’s unlikely you will see any partridge. Of course there are other animals that depend on the hardwood, and the diversity of our forests.
For those that cherish the diversity of Nova Scotia forests and don’t want to see the wildlife driven away or see starved, there is a petition offered by a Facebook group, Stop Spaying Nova Scotia which asks you to download the pdf file and collect ten signatures. Mail it to Sydnee Lynn who will be forwarding them onto the Nova Scotia government. You can download the pdf file here. We can’t allow the government to sacrifice our health and forests for the sake of profit and industry.