Folk Singer, Environmentalists and Cree Denounce Forestry Practices
in Quebec
2/16/00
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Folk singer, environmentalists and Cree denounce forestry
practices in Quebec
Source: The Associated Press
Status: Copyright 2000, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: February 16, 2000
Byline: Luann Lasalle
MONTREAL (AP) Forests in northern Quebec look like a ''Mohawk
haircut'' because too many trees are being cut down too fast, a well-
known folk singer said Tuesday.
Richard Desjardins, who created controversy in Quebec with a recent
film on the state of the province's forests, said there might be no
more trees left to cut as early as 2025.
He said one only has to fly over parts of northern Quebec to see the
impact.
''It looks bare,'' Desjardins told a news conference. ''It looks like
a Mohawk haircut,'' a remark that brought chuckles from Ted Moses,
chief of the Grand Council of the Crees in northen Quebec.
The Cree and a coalition of environmental groups joined Desjardins to
ask for an independent inquiry into how the province's forests are
managed. They also want the public to have more say in the process.
Desjardins, who's from the Abitibi region in northwestern Quebec, has
made his name as a popular entertainer in the province singing about
everyday life.
He sparked a public debate last spring when he co-produced a film
that portrayed the ugliness of clear-cutting.
He said if the Parti Quebecois government wants sovereignty, then it
should consider nationalizing the forests because the ''public owns
them.''
Desjardins also said forestry companies and the Quebec government
share the same interests in the $14-billion industry that employs
thousands.
But the head of the Quebec Forest Industries Association dismissed
Desjardins' claim, saying the cuts are scientifically calculated on
forest growth.
''I have more confidence in calculations than impressions,'' said
association president Andre Duchesne.
He said there always has been a shortage of trees to cut because
provincial laws impose limits.
He said cutting down forests is emotional because it's ''ugly.''
People believe if ''it's ugly then it must be bad,'' Duchesne said.
''You have to separate these two ideas.''
The Cree are fighting the Quebec government and forestry companies in
court to make sure environmental and social assessments are done
whenever logging permits are granted in the James Bay territory.
''The present system is founded on the maximum amount of wood that
can be processed in the mills,'' Moses told the news conference.
Chief Paul Gull, another Cree, said deforestation is depriving
aboriginals of their ability to maintain a traditional lifestyle of
hunting and trapping.
''These are the social impacts that we're going to be facing,'' said
Gull, chief of the small community of Waswanipi, an eight-hour drive
north of Montreal.